TAI Hürjet.

Technical Data

• Design

  The Hürjet uses a single-engine, tandem-seat, swept-wing supersonic configuration with two lateral engine intakes, a single vertical stabilizer, conventional horizontal tail surfaces, and retractable tricycle landing gear. The layout is closer to a compact fighter than to a conventional basic trainer, allowing the aircraft to combine a narrow frontal section with the two-seat arrangement required for advanced instruction. The student and instructor sit in tandem, while the single engine occupies the central and rear fuselage. The aircraft measures 13.6 m in length, has a 9.5 m wingspan, 4.1 m height, and 25 m² wing area. Based on the published span and area, its geometric wing aspect ratio is evaluated at 3.61, consistent with a compact wing designed to conciliate transonic and supersonic performance with the maneuverability and low-speed handling required for training.

  The wing and airframe are designed for fighter-like maneuvering rather than maximum aerodynamic efficiency or endurance. The Hürjet has structural limits of +8/-3 g and a specified sustained load factor of 6.3 g at 4,572 m. The distinction is important because +8 g represents the positive structural limit, whereas 6.3 g indicates the load factor that the aircraft can sustain under the specified flight condition while retaining sufficient thrust to compensate for aerodynamic energy loss. The aircraft's published Mach 1.4 maximum speed further requires a wing and fuselage optimized for operation through the transonic region and into sustained supersonic flight. At Mach 1.4, the Hürjet also belongs to the small upper tier of genuinely supersonic jet trainers, faster than most operational aircraft such as the M-346, Yak-130, Hawk, T-5, L-39 Skyfox and Pampa III, while remaining slightly below the T-50 Golden Eagle, its closest direct performance competitor. The available data for the Hürjet currently do not disclose wing sweep, taper ratio, thickness-to-chord ratio, lift coefficients, or definitive production weights, preventing an authoritative calculation of wing loading, thrust-to-weight ratio, or lift-to-drag ratio.

  One of the clearest design changes during the Hürjet development occurred in the nose and forward fuselage, as the P2 introduced a larger and more downward-sloping nose, an enlarged radome, and revised forward-fuselage geometry compared with the P1. The additional volume supports the growth from a training aircraft relying heavily on simulated tactical functions toward a combat configuration capable of accommodating real sensors. This is particularly relevant to the planned Aselsan Murad 100-A AESA radar, since radar installation requires space not only for the antenna but also for processors, electrical equipment, cabling and cooling. Turkish Aerospace has identified roughly 350 parts in the forward fuselage and close to 8,000 parts in the complete aircraft, illustrating the concentration of avionics, structural elements and flight-related equipment within a relatively compact airframe. The available information does not disclose the radome diameter, radar aperture, or internal equipment volume.

  Air enters the single F404-104 engine through two lateral fuselage intakes. The intake arrangement preserves a relatively narrow forward fuselage while supplying a centrally installed engine producing 78.7 kN of maximum thrust. The P2 incorporated a revised intake geometry compared with the P1, demonstrating that inlet optimization continued during flight development. The intake system must provide stable airflow from low-speed ground operation through high-angle-of-attack maneuvering and up to the maximum speed, where airflow entering the compressor must be managed as the aircraft moves through the supersonic regime. The earlier evaluation of the Eurojet EJ200 illustrates the relationship between propulsion and airframe design: installing that engine would have required larger intake cross-sections and additional aerodynamic development. Selection of the F404, therefore, determined not only the engine installation but also an important part of Hürjet's inlet and fuselage design.

  The cockpit uses a tandem two-seat arrangement, maintaining a smaller frontal area than a side-by-side trainer such as the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly and giving the Hürjet external proportions closer to a fighter aircraft. The cockpit is centered on a Large Area Display and software-defined Human-Machine Interface, allowing information presentation and training functions to be modified through software rather than relying on a cockpit dominated by separate analogue instruments. Moreover, the Hürjet uses digital fly-by-wire flight controls, which translate pilot commands into control-surface movements while supporting the handling characteristics required for supersonic and high-g flight. For a trainer, this architecture also allows flight-control logic to combine responsive fighter-like handling with protections intended to reduce the probability of a student exceeding the permitted flight envelope. To date, only a relatively small number of trainers really match this training philosophy: the T-7A Red Hawk, the M-346 Block 20, and the KAI T-50.

  The Hürjet's combat-oriented airframe is also designed for a maximum external payload capability of 3,402 kg across seven external hardpoints, including wingtip stations. The P2 introduced wingtip weapon stations and, by 2026, had flown with four underwing pylons, demonstrating the physical development of the stores arrangement rather than limiting it to a conceptual configuration. The wingtip stations are particularly suited to air-to-air missiles, leaving underwing positions available for additional missiles, guided air-to-ground weapons, external fuel tanks or mission equipment. Maximum external payload is a structural carriage figure rather than a normal load for every mission: increasing external mass and drag reduces acceleration, climb, maneuvering performance and maximum speed. At 3,402 kg, however, the Hürjet's maximum external payload is close to the T-50/FA-50 at roughly 3,700 kg, and sits just above the M-346/M-346FA, Yak-130 and L-15 at roughly 3,000 kg, placing it firmly in the upper payload tier of advanced trainers and light combat aircraft. Individual structural limits for each weapon station are not disclosed.

  The Hürjet also uses a retractable tricycle landing gear for conventional runway operations, while the planned Naval Hürjet requires a substantially redesigned structural arrangement for carrier operations. Arrested landings generate higher vertical and longitudinal loads than conventional runway recoveries, requiring reinforced landing gear, stronger structural attachment points, an arresting system, and corresponding reinforcement of fuselage load paths. Maritime operation additionally requires corrosion protection for the airframe, landing gear, electrical connectors, actuators and other exposed equipment, while carrier approaches require improved low-speed stability and controllability close to the lower end of the flight envelope. These modifications will inevitably increase the aircraft's structural mass, which could affect payload, acceleration, climb or bring-back capability, making the Naval Hürjet a genuine structural derivative rather than a baseline aircraft fitted only with a tailhook. No definitive naval empty mass, maximum takeoff mass, carrier approach speed, arrested-recovery mass, or launch parameters have been disclosed to date.

  As of August 31, 2026, the Hürjet's design remains more mature than the original 2023 P1 configuration but is still evolving as both production and specialized derivatives develop in parallel. The P2's enlarged nose, revised intakes, altered forward fuselage, and additional weapon stations demonstrate that Turkish Aerospace continued modifying the airframe after the first flight, while the first customer-oriented production aircraft flew on August 30, 2026. Several important production design values remain undisclosed, including empty weight, normal takeoff weight, maximum takeoff weight, maximum landing weight, internal fuel capacity, center-of-gravity limits, structural service life and fatigue-life target. These omissions prevent authoritative calculation of payload fraction, fuel fraction, wing loading and thrust-to-weight ratio without introducing assumptions not supported by the available Hürjet data.

• Avionics and Onboard Equipment

  The Hürjet uses a digital avionics architecture designed to combine advanced flying instruction with fighter-oriented tactical training. Its tandem cockpit is centered on a Large Area Display, LAD, identified as the LAD-208, together with a Head-Up Display and software-defined Human-Machine Interface, HMI. The LAD-208 uses a fault-tolerant AMLCD architecture, high-resolution display, resistive multi-touch interface, and compatibility with daylight and Night Vision Imaging System operations. The resistive interface allows operation while wearing gloves, while the software-configurable display can combine flight, navigation, aircraft status, tactical, and weapon-related information on a common surface instead of distributing these functions across numerous independent displays. This architecture also allows cockpit presentation and simulated fighter functions to be modified through software as training requirements evolve.

  The Turkish configuration incorporates several identified systems from Aselsan. The ANS-511 inertial navigation system supplies position, attitude, velocity, and heading information, while the 9681 V/UHF airborne radio provides external voice communications for air traffic control, formation, and military operations. The DHS-300 internal communication system manages cockpit intercom, external radio audio, and aircraft warning tones between the student and instructor positions. The Hürjet also incorporates an IFF Mk XIIA(S) capability for military identification. Aselsan additionally contributes flight, mission, and navigation systems, while a mission computer located in the forward fuselage integrates navigation, communications, identification, cockpit presentation, and training information. The available data logically do not disclose processing capacity, computer redundancy, data-bus bandwidth, navigation accuracy, radio range, anti-jam characteristics, or the detailed IFF antenna and cryptographic architecture. The Hürjet is also designed for Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), allowing its pilot to command autonomous stealth drones like the ANKA-3 and Kizilelma in high-threat combat scenarios. This capability lets the aircraft serve as a cost-effective tactical command hub while simultaneously training future pilots for next-generation drone-swarming operations.

  A defining element of the Hürjet's avionics is the Havelsan Embedded Training System, which allows simulated tactical entities to be inserted into an actual flight. Virtual hostile aircraft, radar contacts, threats, weapon engagements, and mission events can therefore appear within the cockpit while the student experiences the real aircraft's acceleration, altitude, formation geometry, supersonic speed, and g forces. This permits tactical sensor and weapon training without fitting every trainer with the complete radar, electronic warfare and weapons suite of an operational fighter. Havelsan also provides the Flight and Mission Planning System, allowing routes, exercise areas, tactical events and training objectives to be prepared before takeoff, transferred to the aircraft and subsequently reconstructed during post-flight debriefing. These elements form part of the wider Hürjet Training 360 architecture linking the aircraft with simulators, mission planning, ground instruction and debriefing equipment.

  For the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) configuration, the principal planned real sensor is the Aselsan Murad 100-A active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The Murad uses gallium-nitride (GaN) technology and digital beamforming, allowing electronic beam steering rather than mechanical antenna movement. Functions associated with the radar include all-aspect and high-aspect air search, multiple-target tracking, missile guidance, terrain mapping, range measurement, synthetic-aperture radar imaging, and automatic target recognition. It also provides radar-spectrum monitoring and directional jamming functions, adding electronic support and electronic attack capabilities to the radar's conventional detection and targeting roles. Multi-target tracking and missile guidance are particularly relevant to the planned Gökdoğan beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, while SAR and terrain mapping support air-to-ground operations. The Murad is associated with the combat development path, but should not be treated as standard equipment on every Block 0 or Block 1 training aircraft. Its antenna diameter, transmit/receive module count, detection range, track capacity, power output, and Hürjet-specific installed mass remain undisclosed.

  A helmet-mounted display and cueing capability forms another potential combat avionics development path, with the Aselsan Tulgar cited for future Hürjet applications. Such equipment can place flight and tactical symbology directly in the pilot's field of view and allow head position to cue sensors or high-off-boresight air-to-air missiles. This would be particularly relevant to an armed Hürjet carrying Bozdoğan short-range missiles on its wingtip stations, allowing target designation away from the aircraft's longitudinal axis. The Tulgar, however, is not established as standard equipment on current Turkish production aircraft and should therefore be treated as a prospective combat upgrade rather than part of the confirmed baseline avionics. Similarly, the definitive production self-protection suite remains unspecified: no complete configuration is established for the radar-warning receiver, missile-approach warning system, laser-warning receiver, internal jammer, chaff and flare dispensers, or towed decoy. Moreover, the Murad's spectrum-monitoring and jamming functions do not by themselves constitute a complete defensive-aids suite.

  The Spanish Saeta II is said to introduce a substantially nationalized avionics architecture rather than retaining the Turkish configuration unchanged. Spain reportedly plans a GMV mission computer and GMV inertial/GPS navigation equipment, replacing or modifying two central elements of the Turkish mission and navigation architecture. A Sener DataLink would provide digital information exchange, while an Aertec Remote Interface Unit will provide interfaces between aircraft systems and avionics components. Grupo Oesía will supply audio-management equipment, Orbital the VMDR mission recorder, and Indra the Spanish IFF solution. One aircraft from the initial 21-aircraft phase beginning in 2028 is planned as the integration aircraft for these national systems, with the complete 30-aircraft fleet progressing toward the definitive Saeta II configuration between 2031 and 2035. The extent of these substitutions demonstrates that the Hürjet's electronics architecture is already designed to potentially accommodate different national mission computers, navigation equipment, communications, identification, and recording systems rather than requiring every customer to operate an identical avionics configuration.

• Engine, Propulsion and Performance

  The Hürjet is powered by one GE Aerospace F404-GE-104 afterburning turbofan engine installed in the rear fuselage and supplied by two lateral air intakes. The Hürjet engine is rated at 17,700 lbf (78.7 kN) maximum thrust with afterburner. The F404 is a U.S.-origin fighter-engine family originally developed for the F/A-18 Hornet and subsequently adapted to several combat and advanced training aircraft. Related F404 variants power the F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornet, KAI T-50/TA-50/FA-50, HAL Tejas Mk 1/1A and earlier Saab Gripen variants, although these aircraft do not necessarily use the same F404 subvariant as the Hürjet. The single-engine arrangement concentrates fighter-class afterburning thrust in a compact airframe while eliminating the mass, accessories, and maintenance requirements associated with a second engine.

  Engine integration influenced the Hürjet's airframe throughout its development. The P2 introduced a revised intake geometry, reflecting a continued optimization of airflow to the engine across low-speed, high-angle-of-attack, transonic, and supersonic conditions. An alternative Eurojet EJ200 installation was evaluated but would have required larger intakes and additional aerodynamic development, demonstrating that changing engines affects intake cross-section, ducting, mounts, cooling, center of gravity and fuselage geometry rather than simply replacing the powerplant. Additionally, on May 5, 2026, GE Aerospace and Turkish Aerospace concluded an additional agreement covering F404 engines and continued technical and operational support for the Hürjet and future derivatives. Turkish participation also involves TEI, the GE Aerospace and Turkish Aerospace joint venture, in the broader propulsion industrial and support structure.

  The F404 installation gives Hürjet a published maximum speed of Mach 1.4. Flight testing progressively expanded the supersonic envelope, reaching Mach 1.01 on October 21, 2024 and Mach 1.2 on April 17, 2025, while Mach 1.4 remains the specified maximum. Maximum climb rate is 48,500 ft/min (246.4 m/s) and service ceiling is 45,000 ft (13,716 m). In overall flight performance, the Hürjet's maximum speed, climb rate and ceiling place it closest to the T-50/TA-50/FA-50, while most advanced trainers such as the M-346 are substantially slower and climb at less than half Hürjet's published rate, making Hürjet's performance closer to a light fighter jet like the Northrop F-5E Tiger II or F-20 Tigershark than to the average jet trainer. These figures subsequently allow students to concretely experience real transonic acceleration, supersonic flight, and fighter-style vertical energy management rather than reproducing these conditions solely through simulation.

  In range, the Hürjet's 1,963 km (1,060 nmi) is almost identical to the M-346 at 1,925 km on internal fuel and broadly comparable to the T-50 at roughly 1,850 km, while falling below the F-5E Tiger II's roughly 2,570-3,100 km ferry range with external tanks, placing the Hürjet in the 1,800-2,000 km class typical of high-performance trainers, although the available data do not specify sufficiently detailed fuel, altitude, reserve or external-tank conditions for this figure. Subsequently, it should be treated simply as the published range rather than recategorized as combat radius or a specific ferry profile. Internal fuel capacity, external-tank capacity, endurance, specific fuel consumption, and combat radius remain undisclosed to date. Consequently, fuel fraction and independent range calculations cannot be established from the available Hürjet data.

  The Hürjet combines a structural envelope of +8/-3 g with a published 6.3 g sustained load factor at 15,000 ft (4,572 m), which puts its maneuvering performance close to the T-50/FA-50 and M-346 advanced trainers/light combat aircraft. Among fighter jets, the Hürjet is broadly comparable in design intent to lightweight, highly maneuverable aircraft such as the F-5E Tiger II and F-16, whose structural limits reach roughly +7.3 g and +9 g respectively, although sustained-g figures cannot be directly compared without specifying speed, weight, altitude, and configuration. Moreover, these figures describe different limits: +8 g is the maximum positive structural load, whereas 6.3 g represents the load factor the Hürjet can continuously maintain under the specified condition. The corresponding airspeed is not disclosed, preventing calculation of sustained turn rate or turn radius. Instantaneous turn rate, corner velocity, specific excess power, and acceleration times are likewise not provided.

• Armament and Self-Defence

  The Hürjet is designed to carry up to 7,500 lb (3,402 kg) of external payload in a light combat aircraft (LCA) configuration associated with seven external hardpoints, including wingtip stations. The P2 prototype introduced the wingtip weapon stations and subsequently flew with four underwing pylons, demonstrating the physical development of the stores architecture. The stations can accommodate combinations of air-to-air missiles, precision-guided air-to-ground weapons, external fuel tanks and mission equipment, although individual pylon load limits have not been disclosed. The 7,500 lb figure represents a maximum total external payload rather than a standard combat load, and each configuration logically remains subject to structural, aerodynamic, center-of-gravity, and weapon-separation limitations.

  The principal Turkish air-to-air weapons currently associated with the Hürjet are the Bozdoğan short-range infrared-guided missile and the Gökdoğan beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile. The Bozdoğan has an official operational range of 25+ km (approx. 15.5+ miles), and relies on a high-thrust solid rocket motor and an imaging infrared (IIR) seeker for short-range dogfighting maneuvers. For its part, the Gökdoğan missile has a baseline operational range of 65+ km (approx. 40+ miles), with modern upgraded variants engineered to extend performance up to 100+ km using an active radar seeker and mid-course data-link updates. The Bozdoğan is particularly suited to the wingtip stations, preserving the underwing pylons for additional missiles, fuel, or strike weapons. A future helmet-mounted cueing system could support high-off-boresight engagements by allowing the pilot to designate targets away from the aircraft's forward axis. The Gökdoğan, which represents the BVR component, is closely associated with the planned Murad 100-A AESA radar, whose multi-target tracking and missile guidance functions would allow an armed Hürjet to progress from simulated radar training to real beyond-visual-range engagements.

  The air-to-ground weapons associated with the Hürjet's combat development currently include the SOM stand-off missile, Miniature Bomb, Sarb-83, HGK-3, KGK-82, KGK-83, Teber-82, MAM-L, MAM-C, Cirit and Bozok. This range extends from lightweight guided rockets and compact precision munitions to guided bombs and larger stand-off weapons, allowing weapon mass and range to be matched to the target and mission. Their association with the Hürjet does not establish that every store is already operationally qualified. Full integration requires structural and captive-carry testing, vibration and flutter evaluation, safe-separation trials, stores-management and targeting software, followed where applicable by live release or firing. A fixed internal cannon is not confirmed as a standard Hürjet armament, and no specific gun installation should therefore be assigned to the aircraft without further confirmation.

  The definitive self-defence suite also remains undisclosed. No confirmed production configuration has been established for a radar-warning receiver, missile-approach warning system, laser-warning receiver, chaff and flare dispensers, dedicated internal jammer or towed decoy. On radar-equipped combat aircraft, the Murad can contribute radar-spectrum monitoring and directional electronic jamming, but these functions do not replace a complete defensive-aids suite. The Hürjet is also a conventional non-stealth design with externally carried weapons rather than internal weapon bays, so combat survivability would logically depend principally on maneuverability, speed, tactical routing, stand-off weapons, electronic support, and whatever dedicated countermeasure equipment is ultimately integrated.

The Hürjet's first engine start occurred on January 30, 2023, taxi testing began on March 18, 2023, and the first flight followed on April 25, 2023.