Turkey will purchase Ukrainian engines for its UAVs
Turkey will purchase Ukrainian engines for its UAVs
Documents of the State Enterprise "Zaporozhye Machine-Building Design Bureau" Progress "named after Academician A.G. Ivchenko" appeared on the network, which says about an order from Motor Sich 30 sets of parts and assembly units of the AI-450S engine for completing the AI-450T engine. These power plants are to be transferred to Turkey for equipping Akinci strike UAVs.
Documents of the State Enterprise "Zaporozhye Machine-Building Design Bureau" Progress "named after Academician A.G. Ivchenko" appeared on the network, which says about an order from Motor Sich 30 sets of parts and assembly units of the AI-450S engine for completing the AI-450T engine. These power plants are to be transferred to Turkey for equipping Akinci strike UAVs.
It is envisaged to supply 30 engines by the end of 2022 at the price of one set for the assembly of the engine 236 thousand dollars, or 6.45 million hryvnia. The total amount of the order is estimated at $ 7.092 million, or UAH 193.54 million. It is indicated that an advance of 40 percent of the total amount will be paid by November 12, 2021.
It is worth noting that before that, the Turkish side indicated its readiness to install domestic PD-222 engines on its new Akinsi UAVs. However, judging by the order of the Ukrainian engines, Turkey still has not been able to bring its power plants to mind.
The AI-450T engine has a takeoff power of 450 horsepower. Earlier, Motor Sich has already delivered 20 power plants to Turkey to equip Turkish UAVs Akinsi. However, some sources claim that the Akinsi drone with Ukrainian engines does not fully meet its specified characteristics, and the purchase of these engines is more of a forced measure of Turkey to launch the serial production of new UAVs.
Bayraktar Akinci has a wingspan of 20 meters, a length of 12.3 meters, a maximum take-off weight of up to 6000 kg, a payload weight of 1350 kg (400-450 kilograms in the inner compartment), a flight duration of up to 24 hours, a working ceiling of 12 kilometers. At the moment, Turkey has built three samples of data from shock drones. Akinci has been officially adopted by the Turkish army, and its serial production is expected to start.
It should be noted that the supply of Ukrainian engines to Turkey is not the first act of such cooperation. Earlier, the Turkish side expressed a desire to equip its new promising ATAK-2 helicopters with power plants of Ukraine. At the same time, such cooperation is rather a forced measure for Turkey, since its work on the creation of domestic power plants is stalled in a number of areas. Taking into account Western sanctions, Ukraine turned out to be a cheap and profitable partner for Turkey in equipping its promising technology with engines. At the same time, Ankara is constantly looking for an alternative to Ukraine as an engine supplier. So recently, Turkey decided to purchase South Korean engines for its promising Altay tanks instead of Ukrainian ones.