As part of the Turkish Air Force’s F-16 Fighting Falcon modernization program, code-named “Özgür”, the aircraft will be equipped with AESA Murad radars manufactured by the Turkish defense industry. The aim of the modernization program is to extend the service life of fighters to 12,000 flight hours. In addition to the F-16, Murad radars will also be equipped with Akıncı unmanned aerial vehicles.
The aim of the “Özgür” program, apart from extending the service life of fighters, is to equip the Turkish F-16s with as many Turkish-made systems and components as possible. The installation of the AESA radar is the most important, but not the only part of the work. The fighters will also receive new mission computers, color multifunction displays, radar warning systems, friend-foe identification systems and an inertial navigation system.
In addition, selected elements of the airframe will be replaced. All new equipment is Turkish production. Such a deep independent modernization of the F-16 is possible due to the fact that Turkey has the source codes of the F-16C/D Block 30 software, which was produced under license in that country. Due to the lack of access to the codes, Murad radars will not be installed in the newer F-16 Block 40 and 50.
The first public presentation of the radar developed by Aselsan in cooperation with several other Turkish companies took place on November 10 at the manufacturer’s headquarters. The date, as usual in Turkey, is not accidental. This day marked the eighty-fourth anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
– This is the most modern radar, which is on a par with the radars of other global manufacturers – İsmail Demir, the head of the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry of the Turkish Ministry of Defense (Savunma Sanayii Baskanligi), praised the product. – Thanks to it, the entire cockpit equipment of the fighter will be digital. Thanks to the implementation of national technical solutions, we will be able to integrate Turkish weapons systems with the aircraft. Work related to the radar is the foundation of further work on our national fighter. We do not start them from scratch, the experience gained while working on the modernization of the F-16 brings us step by step closer to our national fighter.
🔴ASELSAN tarafından geliştirilen MURAD AESA Radarı’nın, hava-yer işlevleri: pic.twitter.com/ll0i1yR4fT
— SavunmaSanayiST.com (@SavunmaSanayiST) November 11, 2022
Neither the Turkish Air Force nor the Ministry of Defense provide any official information about the radar, citing state security reasons. For this reason, we have to rely on unofficial information. Work on the radar began in 2018 when Aselsan and SSB signed a contract to develop a new radar.
However, it seems that it is impossible to develop a modern AESA radar in four years, so some research and development work must have been carried out earlier. Anyway, there is information that the presented radar prototype is not ready yet and requires further work. An indirect proof of this may be the fact that even the approximate date of starting the installation of radars in fighters has not yet been announced.
ASELSAN tarafından geliştirilen ve hem F-16 (ÖZGÜR Projesi), hem de AKINCI TİHA’da kullanılması planlanan MURAD AESA Burun Radarı Ankara Gölbaşı yerleşkesinde gerçekleştirilen etkinlikte görücüye çıkarıldı. Etkinlikte MURAD AESA radarının tanıtımı Savunma Sanayii Başkanı İsmail+ pic.twitter.com/8KuxRLEbtr
— İBRAHİM SÜNNETCİ (@BRAHMSNNETC1) November 10, 2022
Murad has a thousand transceivers based on gallium nitride, a substance that amplifies the radar signal and increases the ability to track objects. It is to have performance comparable to the American Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 SABR radar, also used in the F-16. Ultimately, the transceiver modules are to be manufactured at the Aselsan-Bilkent MikroNano factory, but their production has not yet been launched, and the first elements were manufactured in one of the Far East countries according to a Turkish design. Elements for serial radars are to be produced in Turkey.
The radar station is cooled by a liquid, a combination of water and glycol. The closed-circuit coolant removes heat from the antenna and radar components and returns it to the aircraft’s ventilation system. The device has been designed in such a way that the installation requires as little interference with the structure of the fighter as possible. It will be attached to the same clips as the old NA/APG-68(V)9 mechanical radar.
Although the Murad radar is being developed specifically for the F-16, as evidenced by its suitability to the fighter design, it will also be used in Akıncı UAVs, where it will appear even faster than in the F-16. İsmail Demir said that it will happen in the near future. Initially, it was planned to equip Akıncı with radars with a mechanically guided antenna, which was supposed to happen in 2019-2020, but in the end it was decided to wait for the development of a new AESA radar.
Akıncı and its expected armament.
(Talha Işık, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
Akıncı is a combat drone with the ability to conduct reconnaissance missions. The maximum take-off weight is 5,500 kilograms, of which 1,350 kilograms are payload. Akıncı is to carry a wide range of weapons – from small MAM-L and MAM-C laser-guided gliding bombs, through SOM-J cruise missiles and Gökdoğan air-to-air missiles, to classic Mk 80 series bombs. The UAV can stay in the air for up to 24 hours at maximum altitude 12 kilometers.
Turkey is slowly but steadily developing its defense industry, often despite economic problems and informal sanctions by some Western countries. Newer and more advanced types of armaments are being developed and put into production, which are increasingly gaining recognition also on foreign markets. In recent years, special emphasis has been placed on the aviation industry. In the field of unmanned aerial systems, Turkey is already one of the world leaders, and the Bayraktar TB2 has become an export hit.
Even more ambitious projects are now underway with the Hürjet Advanced/Light Combat Trainer and the TF-X Fighter. The implementation of individual systems, such as Murad radars or the AN/ALQ-178 (V)5+ self-defense systems, allows Ankara to expand its industrial competencies and become independent of imports. Thus, the Turks are learning from the lesson of the US halting F-35 sales (and never-ending negotiations for the purchase of forty F-16 Block 70s) after Ankara purchased Russian S-400 anti-aircraft systems.
See also: American customs intercepted a Chinese shipment of weapons
Alan Wilson, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Talha Işık, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
