ASELSAN: Avionics and Sensors

The electronics behind the platform

An aircraft flying does not mean that its radar, electronic systems and training infrastructure are equally mature. Assessing Türkiye’s recent aviation achievements requires a platform’s first flight, testing a sensor on that platform, series production, acceptance and use to be read separately. This distinction makes the contributions of ASELSAN, HAVELSAN, TÜBİTAK, the civil aviation authority and THK more visible: aviation requires reliable software, measurable validation, training and maintenance continuity alongside airframe production. Achievement here is measured not by a promotional adjective but by a particular system’s demonstrated capability at a particular date.

MURAD: Electronic scanning and integration in flight

ASELSAN’s MURAD 100-A AESA radar is a useful example of this approach. Active electronic scanning allows the search direction to change without mechanically turning the antenna and enables different tasks to share time. ASELSAN’s 2025 annual report records integration into the F-16 ÖZGÜR and a successful target-engagement test with GÖKDOĞAN. The organisation’s bulletin records the first integrated flight on AKINCI in February 2025 and a post-integration flight on KIZILELMA later that year. This evidence demonstrates in-flight integration and trials; it does not establish fleet-wide delivery quantities, unpublished range figures or unlimited mission qualification.

[1] ASELSAN · [2] ASELSAN · [3] Turkish Armed Forces Foundation

Cockpit, flight control and self-protection

Avionics contributions extend beyond radar. ASELSAN’s flight and mission management software, cockpit displays and autopilot computer for GÖKBEY help the pilot manage aircraft and navigation information. Its 2024 annual report records initial deliveries of the FLCON 400 flight-control computer and ATRAS traffic and collision-avoidance system for GÖKBEY. The DAL A wording in the May 2025 FLCON brochure describes ‘certifiable’ hardware and software; by itself, it does not mean that every product configuration has been certified. FEWS is described as an F-16 self-protection solution combining radar warning and electronic countermeasures; a brochure cannot establish fleet-wide delivery.

[4] ASELSAN · [5] ASELSAN · [6] ASELSAN · [7] ASELSAN

TÜBİTAK BİLGEM: The computer and software layer

TÜBİTAK’s contribution extends from research infrastructure to computers used in flight. Its statement of 23 February 2024 reports that management computers, avionics interfaces, a deterministic network, a multicore real-time operating system and middleware developed by BİLGEM were used on KAAN’s first flight. This marks a concrete milestone in domestic software and electronics integration; it does not establish completion of all the aircraft’s missions. TÜBİTAK’s Aviation Artificial Intelligence Competition announcement of 30 July 2026 separately documents development of skilled people. Student competition outputs should not be presented as certified operational flight systems.

[8] TÜBİTAK · [9] TÜBİTAK