Baykar CEO Selçuk Bayraktar announced that Baykar’s long range munition named KEMANKES will be revealed in TEKNOFEST 2023 during his speech onboard TCG ANADOLU LHD:
“Bayraktar TB3’s engines are manafuctred by TEI. The diesel engine on TB3 has 3 turbochargers and can work with jet fuel which makes it suitable for operation from this ship (TCG ANADOLU). We can see various payloads and lightweight torpedoes which are yet to be made. We will introduce KEMANKES system in TEKNOFEST. A “cruise missile” with hundreds of kilometers of range is being developed.”
It can be inferred that the new munition will be a loitering munition considering the Baykar’s field and ROKETSAN will be taking part in the development much like the examples such as STM-ROKETSAN ALPAGUT loitering munition and TAI SIMSEK’s kamikaze configuration. Stand-off munitions and Bayraktar TB3 can be a cost effective combination in support of ASuW and amphibious operations.
The mention of lightweight torpedoes point out to considerations for Bayraktar TB3 potentially being in used in ASW role. It can be assumed that Bayraktar TB3 is being considered a possible “Swiss Knife” in a similar manner with the Navy’s AKSUNGUR UCAVs set to perform a diverse range of missions like ISR, ASuW, ASW and EW. However, with the weight of lightweight torpedoes such as ORKA being considered (about 300 kg) it is more likely that Selçuk Bayraktar pointed out to the mini torpedo being developed by ROKETSAN.
It has been announced by ROKETSAN Underwater Systems Manager Levent Çomoğlu that a mini torpedo suitable for use onboard UAVs and USVs is being developed. Systems like Leonardo’s Black Scorpion which has a weight of 11 kg and a length of 1.1 m can be a good example to picture what might ROKETSAN’s mini torpedo be like.
