August 15, 2024 | International, Land
February 17, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Turkey hopes new engine deal will power future TF-X fighter jet
By: Burak Ege Bekdil
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's procurement agency has commissioned a local company to develop critical technologies for an engine that the government hopes will power its first indigenous fighter jet.
A contract was signed Feb. 14 between two state-controlled companies for the development program. Under the deal, TRMotor, an engine maker, will develop an auxiliary power unit and an air turbine start system for what Turkey hopes will be critical components of an indigenous engine to power the TF-X aircraft.
TRMotor signed the deal with the prime contractor of the TF-X program, Turkish Aerospace Industries, another state-controlled defense company.
“The program aims to develop critical technologies ... that will enable us [to] possess indigenous engines,” said Osman Dur, general manager of TRMotor. “The [indigenous] TF-X engine is at the moment at its concept design phase.”
TRMotor is completely owned by SSTEK A.S., a defense technologies company owned by Turkey's defense procurement agency, the Presidency of Defense Industries, or SSB.
This is a milestone contract for the TF-X program,” said TAI CEO Temel Kotil.
The deal comes as SSB is holding talks to co-produce an engine with a consortium of the British company Rolls-Royce and Turkish firm Kale Group.
In 2017, Kale Group and Rolls-Royce launched a joint venture to develop aircraft engines for Turkey, initially targeting the TF-X. But the £100 million (U.S. $139 million) deal was effectively put on hold due to uncertainties over technology transfer.
A year before the partnership, TAI signed a $125 million heads of agreement with BAE Systems to collaborate on the first development phase of the TF-X. Turkey originally planned to fly the TF-X in 2023, but aerospace officials put off the target date to the 2025-2026 time frame.
The TF-X program, or MMU in its Turkish acronym, has been crawling over the past years due to technological failures and know-how transfer. Turkish engineers must first select an engine for the planned aircraft before they finalize their designing phase.
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July 26, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Collins Aerospace gets sixth order from U.S. Army for production of next-generation Manpack radios
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (July 23, 2019) – Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), has received its sixth order from the U.S. Army to provide PRC-162 software-defined ground radios for the Handheld, Manpack and Small Form Factor (HMS) program. This sixth order was issued under a multiple award contract that the Army awarded to Rockwell Collins and two other companies in 2016. The contract, which has a $12.7 billion maximum firm-fixed-price with an estimated completion date of March 2026, moves the Army another step closer toward modernizing communications on the battlefield. The PRC-162 is a two-channel ground radio, both man-portable and vehicle-mountable, that will enable the Army to tap into next-generation communications capabilities such as the Department of Defense's new Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) while maintaining interoperability with legacy waveforms. An open-architecture design also allows for software-upgradeable capabilities in the future. “Success in today's multi-domain battlespace depends heavily on secure and reliable communications,” said Phil Jasper, president, Mission Systems for Collins Aerospace. “We've applied decades of proven experience in airborne communications to provide the Army with a next-generation ground radio that will give troops a heightened level of situational awareness and a tactical advantage.” The PRC-162 is a part of Collins Aerospace's TruNet™ networked communications family of products, which includes ground and airborne radios, advanced networking waveforms, applications, and support and services that enable ground and airborne elements to exchange critical data, images, voice and video in real time. https://www.epicos.com/article/449255/collins-aerospace-gets-sixth-order-us-army-production-next-generation-manpack-radios