The Baykar Bayraktar TB3 UAV has successfully operated from the Turkish carrier TCG Anadolu
November 20, 2024
“The Bayraktar TB3 UAV has made aviation history as the first unmanned aerial vehicle to successfully take off and land on a short-deck ship,” Baykar trumpeted on 19 November. This may or may not be strictly true, depending, as it does on how one defines an unmanned aerial vehicle and a short-deck ship!
De Havilland Queen Bee target drones were operated from HMS Argus (565 ft long, and thus shorter than Anadolu) as long ago as 1936, while the X-47B operated from US Navy CVNs in 2013. HMS Prince of Wales has seen operations by ULTRA (in September 2023) and the General Atomics Mojave in November 2023. More recently, Mojave has taken off from the Korean amphibious assault ship RoKS Dokdo on 12 November, but did not land back on the ship.
Turkey’s ejection from the F-35 programme in 2019 put paid to tentative plans to base fixed-wing naval aviation capabilities on the F-35B, or to acquire ex-US Marine Corps Harrier IIs for operation from the TCG Anadolu. Accordingly, in 2023, Turkey announced plans to optimize the ship’s configuration to support UAV operations.
This required the addition of dedicated UAV control systems and comprehensive beyond-line-of-sight satellite communications facilities. An innovative ‘roller system’ was installed on the forward part of the flight deck to ease deck handling of unmanned aircraft, with an arresting gear system aft, and safety nets.
It was decided that the first unmanned aircraft to operate from the Anadolu would be the Baykar Batraktar TB3, whose performance and handling characteristics promised to allow it to operate without catapault or EMALS assistance, and without arrestor wires.
The Bayraktar TB3 began carrier related testing at Tekirdağ Çorlu and then at Baykar’s Flight Training and Test Center in Keşan, Edirne, making its first ramp take off on 1 June 2024. The 12° ramp, was designed and built to simulate the deck of TCG Anadolu, to allow the Bayraktar TB3 to better prepare for its shipboard deployment.
After completing their ramp tests, two Bayraktar TB3s (PT1 and PT2) left Keşan, and deployed to Dalaman Air Base, from where TB3 PT1 successfully performed day and night approach tests close to TCG Anadolu. Night approach tests were the purpose of the type’s 91st Test Flight, demonstrating the type’s maturity, and the company’s confidence, at such an early stage of the aircraft’s career.
Finally, on 19 November Bayraktar TB3 PT2 successfully took off from the Anadolu’s 12° ramp at sea, performing a 46-minute test flight over Aegean waters before successfully landing back on the short deck.
While videos of the Bayraktar TB3 tests did not show the use of assisted launch or recovery systems, other UAVs planned to be used on the ship will need these. These aircraft include
Baykar’s jet-engined Kizilelma uncrewed combat air vehicle (UCAV), and the stealthy TAI ANKA-3.
