Turkish Defense Ministry Turkish Aerospace Industries has commenced weapon trials of the Hurkus-C turboprop light ground attack aircra...
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| Turkish Defense Ministry |
Turkish Aerospace Industries has commenced weapon trials of the Hurkus-C turboprop light ground attack aircraft.
The laser guided Long Range Anti-Tank Missile System LUMTAS Missile developed by Roketsan, was fired from the Hurkus-C for the first time on 7 April 2017, in Konya Karapınar test range.
The 37.5 kg air to ground missile with a maximum range of 8000 m successfully hit the ground target. Effective against both moving and static targets, the LUMTAS can be equipped with either a anti-tank tandem warhead or a anti-personal warhead.
The 1.8 m long LUMTAS missile is launched from a 62 kg launcher which can carry either 2 or 4 missiles.
Hurkus-C is an armed version of the Hurkus turboprop trainer aircraft developed by TAI. The aircraft features armor reinforced air-frame, self healing fuel tanks to improve survivability against ground fire while carrying out close air support (CAS) and counter insurgency (COIN), reconnaissance and surveillance missions.
It is currently powered by a 1,600 shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68T turboprop engine driving a five bladed aluminum Hartzell HC-B5MA-3 propeller.
The twin seat Hurkus can carry a maximum payload of 1,500 kg on its five external weapon pylons along with a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor turret.
Currently the Roketsan Cirit laser-guided rockets and LUMTAS is integrated with the aircraft, which will be expanded to Turkish HGK, LGK guided bombs, 250 lb and 500 lb general purpose bombs and a 12.7 mm gun in future.
