The prototype Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) KAAN fighter jet has successfully performed its second test flight, following the aircraft’s maiden flight on 21 February 2024.

“Our National Combat Aircraft… took off from the runway at 08:46 this morning, stayed in the air for 14 minutes and reached an altitude of ten thousand feet,” confirmed Dr Haluk Görgün, the secretary of Turkish Defence Industries. “With confident steps towards mass production, our skies are in safe hands with our local and national technologies.”

The twin-engine, multi-role, indigenously designed fighter jet is being created to replace the nation’s ageing F-16 fleet and meet Turkish Air Force (TurAF) requirements beyond 2030. Its development started in 2016, following the signing of the programme’s prime contract between the Ministry of Turkish National Defence and TAI, and the aircraft is expected to be operational in the TurAF inventory until the 2070s. It will also be interoperable with “other critical assets of TurAF such as F-35As,” notes TAI.

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