Historic: Türkiye-made 5th gen fighter jet leaves hangar

In what is a historic day for Türkiye and possibly for global fighter jet history, the Turkish developed and made TF-X National Combat Aircraft (MMU) fifth generation stealth fighter jet left its hangar late Friday, according to an announcement made by the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) Chairperson Ismail Demir.

Ambitious goals seen as dreams are being realized one by one, as Türkiye’s fifth generation stealth fighter awoke Friday coming out of its hangar for the first time, and no doubt will soon start to flex its muscles.

“In memory of our martyrs! We said that we will take our National Combat Aircraft out of the hangar on March 18. Our plane is on the runway today! Under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, God willing will witness it soaring in our sky homeland,” Minister Demir said on Twitter, referring to the 108th anniversary of Türkiye’s naval victory on the Gallipoli peninsula.

5th gen fighter tech

Developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), the TF-X MMU has the technologies and features found in fifth-generation warplanes. It will provide the opportunity to strategically attack air-to-air and air-to-ground targets. It has a completely domestic infrastructure for secure data sharing and the use of smart munitions.

The TF-X MMU with its high-performance radar, electronic warfare, electro-optics, communication, navigation and identification capability, will achieve increased combat power with precision and accurate firing from internal weapon slots at high/supersonic speed. It also has automatic target recognition and detection, multiple data fusion and artificial intelligence capabilities.

The Turkish-developed fighter will replace the F-16 aircraft in the inventory of the Air Forces Command, which are planned to be phased out starting in the 2030s.

With the TF-X MMU Türkiye becomes one of the few countries with the infrastructure and technology to produce a fifth-generation combat aircraft as a result of the project’s development in technology areas such as low visibility, internal weapons slots, high maneuverability, increased situational awareness and sensor fusion, which are all required for a new generation aircraft.