New Hurjet Aircraft Will Outperform American F-35 – Turkey’s Defense Industry

The light attack aircraft Hurjet, which is being developed by Turkey, will surpass the American F-35 fifth-generation fighter in performance characteristics.

This statement was made on Saturday by the head of the defense industry department of the republic, Ismail Demir.

“Our Hurjet light attack aircraft will make its first flight next year. Our fighter has more advanced characteristics than the F-35.

The aircraft will be rolled out of the hangar on March 18 next year,” he said.

At the same time, Demir did not explain what exactly the characteristics of the Turkish attack aircraft should surpass the American fifth-generation fighter-bomber.

The Hurjet is a jet version of the Turkish Hurkus turboprop trainer.

It has been developed by the Turkish aerospace company TAI (Turkish Aerospace Industries) since 2017.

According to the manufacturer, Hurjet will reach speeds of up to about 1.5 thousand km per hour, fly at an altitude of up to 13.7 thousand meters and carry up to three thousand kg of payload.

It was previously expected that the first flight of the attack aircraft would take place in 2022, but then it was postponed to 2023.

Hurjet will have to replace the Turkish Air Force’s Northrop T-38 Talon jet aircraft.

The U.S. previously sent an official notice to Turkey about its exclusion from the program for the supply of the latest F-35 fighters due to Ankara ‘s purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems.

The States annulled the F-35 joint memorandum with Turkey, signing it with the seven remaining F-35 project pa-rtners the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, Canada and Norway.

President Erdogan subsequently announced the US proposal to buy other fighters, but not the fifth, but the fourth generation – F-16.

This issue is also to be agreed upon in the US Congress – the State Department is lobbying this issue, convincing congressmen that the deal “serves the interests of Washington.”