Bayraktar Kızılelma
Next-generation stealth jet combat drone: the first Turkish supersonic UCAV and the first loyal wingman platform in Europe, designed to operate alongside the 5th-generation TAI Kaan fighter.
Bayraktar Kızılelma
Next-generation stealth jet combat drone: the first Turkish supersonic UCAV and the first loyal wingman platform in Europe, designed to operate alongside the 5th-generation TAI Kaan fighter.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- Bayraktar Kızılelma
- Alias
- MİUS (Red Apple)
- Manufacturer
- Baykar
- Country
- Turkey
- Year
- 2023
- Category
- UCAV (Combat UAV)
- Class
- MALE (Medium-altitude / long-endurance)
- Status
- In sviluppo
Performance
- Range
- 930 km
- Endurance
- 5 h
- Top speed
- Mach 0.9 (poi Mach 1.4 sulla variante C)
- Service ceiling
- 13,700 m
- Propulsion
- Turbofan AI-25TLT (poi AI-322F afterburning)
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 8500 kg
- Payload
- 1500 kg
- Hardpoints
- 6
- Weapons
- Gökdoğan, Bozdoğan, SOM-J, Çakır, Stand-off cruise, bombe guidate
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- Radar AESA MURAD, EO/IR, IRST, SIGINT/EW
- Datalink / control
- SATCOM + LOS, modalità autonoma loyal wingman
- Launch
- Pista corta / portaerei (TCG Anadolu modificata)
- Recovery
- Pista
Combat use
- ▸Flight test programme from 2022
- ▸Planned operational entry from TCG Anadolu (2026)
- ▸Loyal wingman for the future TAI KAAN stealth fighter
Tags
Main operators
History
Announced in 2021 and first-flown in December 2022, the Kızılelma is the world's first UCAV designed from the outset to operate from conventional short-deck carriers.
The supersonic, afterburner-equipped Kızılelma-C variant is expected by 2026-27 with beyond-visual-range air-to-air combat capability.
The Kızılelma (Red Apple, from Turkic legend) is the first jet-powered combat drone built in Turkey and the first European stealth UCAV genuinely under flight test from a carrier: developed under the personal lead of Baykar CTO Selçuk Bayraktar, it is the spearhead of the Turkish Drone Doctrine.
Announced in 2021 and first-flown on 14 December 2022 — just 18 months after programme start — the Kızılelma uses the Ukrainian Ivchenko AI-25TLT turbofan supplied by Motor Sich, later replaced by the afterburning AI-322F on the supersonic C variant.
Designed as a loyal wingman for the 5th-generation TAI KAAN fighter, the Kızılelma is the world's first UCAV to natively integrate AESA radar, IRST and beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles (Gökdoğan), paving the way for the man-machine air warfare of the coming decades.