The United Arab Emirates has targeted the national combat aircraft KAAN on its radar. TUSAŞ General Manager Demiroğlu revealed that the UAE is interested in the KAAN project. Sharing the information that a contract has been signed for Hurkus, Demiroğlu announced that discussions were underway for the Atak helicopter.

IDEX 2025, one of the world’s most important defense industry fairs, has begun in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi. Turkish defense industry companies received great attention at the fair. Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (TUSAŞ) became the focal point for both UAE officials and high-level delegations from around the world. Speaking to TRT News, TUSAŞ General Manager Mehmet Demiroğlu emphasized that TUSAŞ is a strong player in the UAE market. Demiroğlu stated that they are working on different projects with both public institutions and private companies. AGREEMENT FOR HÜRKUŞ Sharing the information of a contract signed between Calidus company based in the United Arab Emirates and TUSAŞ, Demiroğlu stated, “We have reached an agreement on how we can work together on the ‘Hurkus’, how we can jointly develop the aircraft they produce.” “We will sign the agreement for this.”

DELIVERY DATE OF KAAN 2028 Demiroğlu, who made statements about the national combat aircraft KAAN, stated that many defense industry companies in the country are working on this project. Demiroğlu said, “Getting an external partner for such a big project is quite reasonable. As it reflects to the public, we are working closely with Saudi Arabia on this issue. There may be progress for other countries as well. Even the United Arab Emirates can be added to the list. They told us this at a high level yesterday and mentioned their interest.” Adding that work continues for the second and third prototypes of KAAN, Mehmet Demiroğlu said that the second prototype will take off by the end of this year, and the third by the beginning of the new year. Demiroğlu pointed to the year 2028 for the first delivery of KAAN.

NEGOTIATIONS FOR ATAK Demiroğlu emphasized that the UAE is closely interested in the ATAK helicopter. “They had tested ATAK 1 before. They liked it very much. Then they came to Turkey with a high-level delegation and experienced it firsthand. They were very impressed with ATAK’s capabilities at that time. However, the process slowed down a bit afterwards. Now we are trying to speed it up. We have had some discussions in this context.” Sharing that the United Arab Emirates has a serious intention about ANKA-3, Demiroğlu mentioned that TUSAŞ and the UAE could produce a joint air platform.