Turkish Air Force

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Türk Hava Kuvvetleri
Turkish Air Force
Turkish Air Force

TurkishAirforceOrganizationlogo.png
active
Country TurkeyTurkey Turkey
Armed forces Turkish armed forces
Type Armed forces ( air force )
Strength 60,100 (2014)
Location Ankara Headquarters
management
Current
commander 		General Hasan Kücükakyüz
(since 2018)
insignia
Aircraft cockade Roundel of Turkey.svg
National emblem ( vertical stabilizer ) Flag of Turkey.svg

The Turkish Air Force ( Turkish: Hava Kuvetleri ) was founded in 1911 as a support force within the Ottoman Army and became independent on January 31, 1944.

The Air Force currently has around 60,100 soldiers, making it the second largest armed force. It is divided into two tactical air commands in Eskişehir and Diyarbakır , a training command and a support command . The headquarters are in Ankara . The Turkish Air Force has 1940 aircraft, including General Dynamics F-16 , McDonnell Douglas F-4 and Northrop F-5 , Boeing KC-135 tanker aircraft and 86 tactical transport aircraft (including CN-235 , Transall C-160 , Lockheed C -130 and Airbus A400M ).

history

Sabiha Gökçen and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

Sabiha Gökçen became the first Turkish female pilot and the world's first female fighter pilot in 1937 . She was one of eight adopted children of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk .

Turkey has been part of NATO since February 18, 1952, and during the Cold War until 1991 the Air Force supported the alliance on the southeast flank of the Warsaw Pact countries .

In August 1964, Captain Cengiz Topel was hit by 40-mm Bofors guns in an F-100 while flying over Cyprus near Denizli / Xeros near Gemikonağı / Karavostasi and crashed. However, members of the Cypriot National Guard are said to have taken him to their headquarters in Kykkos Monastery , where they allegedly tortured him to death. He was the first Turkish Air Force fighter pilot to be killed during a mission.

The Air Force took part in the military coup in Turkey in 1971 .

In 1974 the Air Force supported the invasion of Northern Cyprus in Operation Atilla .

Since 1978 the Air Force has been used frequently against positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq ( Kandil Mountains ) and Syria. See also: Conflict between the Republic of Turkey and the PKK .

The Air Force participated in the 1980 military coup in Turkey .

On March 26, 1994 there was an air raid on Koçağılı and Kuşkonar against Kurdish villages in their own country .

From January 1, 1997 to March 17, 2003, the Air Force participated in Operation Northern Watch to enforce a no-fly zone in Iraq north of the 36th parallel.

From March 24 to June 10, 1999, Air Force aircraft were used as part of NATO's Allied Force operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the Kosovo war.

From December 16, 2007 to February 29, 2008, he participated in Operation Sonne (Turkish: Güneş Harekatı) in northern Iraq to combat bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

In the Syrian-Turkish conflict in 2012 , a McDonnell F-4 of the Turkish air force was shot down by the Syrian air defense off the Syrian province , killing both crew members.

On March 23, 2014, a Turkish F-16 fighter aircraft shot down a Syrian military aircraft of the type MiG-23 near Kessab in Syria . The pilot was able to save himself with the ejector seat.

On November 24, 2015, a Sukhoi Su-24 of the Russian Air Force was shot down in the Turkish-Syrian border area over the Syrian province of Latakia .

Since 2015, the Air Force has been participating in a renewed offensive against the PKK , especially in the provinces of Hakkâri and Şırnak .

In July 2016, part of the air force participated in an attempted coup .

As part of the Turkish military offensive in northern Syria in 2016/17, Turkish F-16 fighter jets bombed IS positions.

Since January 20, 2018 under the will Turkish military offensive on Afrin positions of the YPG / y pj bombed.

Modernization of the air force

F-35 "Joint Strike Fighter"

American F-35. The Turkish Air Force has ordered 116 jets.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense had chosen 116 F-35 “Joint Strike Fighters” (JSF) as the successor for older jets and therefore decided against the Eurofighter Typhoon for technical, political and economic reasons , which among other things does not have “ stealth technology ”. Turkey was involved in the development of the F-35 as a Level 3 partner of the US armed forces. The total order volume for the 116 jets was 10.4 billion US dollars. The US's first F-35 entered service in 2014. Nevertheless, Turkey was invited back to the Eurofighter project.

In addition, extensive measures were in progress to modernize a significant part of the Turkish F-4 and F-16 stocks. In addition to almost all of the 240 F-16 fighter aircraft produced under license in Turkey between 1987 and 1999, Turkey procured a further 30 F-16 fighter aircraft from 2006 to bridge the transition period until the introduction of the new F-35 jets .

On July 17, 2019, the US government announced that the delivery of the ordered F-35 to Turkey had been canceled. The reason was the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system by the Turkish government, which, according to the USA, can be used as a Russian espionage instrument. No statement was made about the parts deliveries from Turkey.

Friend-foe recognition system

Turkish F-16s in formation.

In the meantime, all 270 F-16 combat aircraft of the Turkish Air Force have been retrofitted with Aselsan's own friend-foe detection system . Since the detection profiles of the originally built-in US versions could not be changed, Turkey developed its own friend-foe detection system. In future, the Turkish pilots will identify targets according to “national interest”.

Türk Yıldızları

The Türk Yıldızları (Turkish Stars) or Turkish Stars are a Turkish aerobatic team based in Konya . Currently this acrobatic team (Akroteam for short, Turkish akrotim) of the 134th fleet of the Turkish Air Force ( Turkish: Türk Hava Kuvvetleri) consists of eleven pilots. Eight Northrop F-5 combat aircraft are used for the flight demonstrations.

structure

The Supreme Command of the Air Force reports directly:

The combat units are subordinate to the two tactical air force commandos, to which the following squadrons are subordinate:

  • 1st Tactical Air Force Command (Western Turkey, Headquarters: Eskisehir) (F-16C / D)
    An F-16 of the 192nd Squadron Tiger Squadron in Balikesir

Two battalions with 86 " rapiers " and eight fire units with MIM-23 HAWK are available for air defense .

Incidents

  • On 23 May 2006 near the island collided Karpathos , a Greek and a Turkish fighter plane type F-16 at an interception. Greece claims a national airspace with a width of 10 nautical miles (about 19 kilometers) beyond its own coastlines. Turkey only recognizes six nautical miles (about 11 kilometers), which corresponds to the width of the national sea areas. Because of conflicts in the Aegean Sea, Greece and Turkey have been on the brink of war three times since 1974.
  • On January 17, 2018, a CASA CN-235 of the Turkish Air Force (98-148) flew into a snow-covered hill near Hodulluca Mevkii, Yalvaç District, Esparta Province and was destroyed. The machine was on a training flight to and from Eskişehir airfield . All three inmates died.

See also

Web links

Commons : Turkish Air Force  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Turkish Air Force in World War II. In: Flieger Revue Extra No. 12, Berlin 2006, pp. 35 and 41
  2. ↑ http://www.whatson-northcyprus.com/interest/lefke/topel.htm
  3. ↑ Focus Online : Turkish Army shoots down Syrian fighter aircraft from March 23, 2014
  4. ↑ ABC News : Turkish Jets Down Syrian Warplane Near Border, March 23, 2014
  5. ↑ https://deutsch.rt.com/der-nahe-osten/46861-al-bab-gefallen-hochburg-is-turkei-syrien/
  6. ↑ https://spiegel.de/politik/ausland/tuerkei-kampfjets-bombardieren-stellen-der-kurdischen-ypg-a-1188942-amp.html
  7. ↑ TGNA Approves Turkey's F-35 PSFD Phase Participation ( Memento from July 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ F-35 instead of Eurofighter in Turkey Handelsblatt: Eurofighter fails with Turks
  9. ↑ The day: USA finally throw Turkey out of F-35 program - n-tv.de. www.n-tv.de, July 17, 2019, accessed on July 17, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Turkey prepares war against Israel , israelnetz.com
  11. ↑ Country information from the Austrian Ministry of Defense
  12. ↑ Airbus Defense and Space: Turkey accepts its first A400M. Flugrevue, April 5, 2014, accessed on August 14, 2014 .
  13. ↑ Turkey decommissioned the RF-4E. www.flugrevue.de, March 12, 2015, accessed on March 15, 2015 .
  14. ^ Accident report of the collision over Ankara on February 1, 1963, Viscount , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on July 27, 2018.
  15. ^ Accident report of the collision over Ankara on February 1, 1963, DC-3 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on July 27, 2018.
  16. ^ Accident report CN-235 TAF 097 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 25, 2018.
  17. ↑ Article at stern.de
  18. ^ Issues of Greek - Turkish Relations: National airspace. In: Hellenic Republic - Ministry of Foreign Affairs. June 14, 2018, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Greece / Turkey: A pilot dies in a collision between two fighter planes. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - FAZ.NET. May 23, 2006, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  20. ^ Accident report CN-235 TAF 98-148 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 25, 2018.