I am quite impressed. Turkish defense company Baykar just tested the Red Apple (Kizil Elma) drone and showed the world its capabilities. This will have massive geopolitical consequences as this might be able to counter stealth jets with numbers. If 4-6 of these are put up against an f35 or j35, the fighter might not be the one that wins. Baykar's doctrine seems to be to overwhelm fighters with 5x cheaper drones which have reduced range but can make up for it with AI pilot tactics.
Oh, and this uses Ukrainian engines, hence Ukraine might be able to field it soon. I don't know what's in the deal they made called BlackSeaShield but it might be deal to swap advanced electronics for jet engine. The drone operates with a lot of Aselsan and Rocketsan stuff that Turkish gov developed over 30 years. The grain deal with Turkey RU and UA prevents turkey from supporting Ukraine militarily in return for free access of Ukrainian ships. That's my understanding of it as after the deal, no offensive Turkish systems were seen other them some MRAPs (mine resistant defensive vehicles) and troop carriers.
But Baykar deal is different as they already had many major deals even before the war started and Turkish gov stated that since Baykar is a private company, they don't care but gov owned stuff won't be provided. This forced Baykar to build munitions for its drones. But Baykar still relies a lot on Aselsan electronics and radars that were developed over a long time. They don't have the time or money to build these on their own. Hence, Ukraine likely did a deal to get the electronics and support from the Turkish government in return for the engine.
Would be interesting to see it fare against the SU-57 but it will take at least another 4-8 months for it to be in service with the Turkish forces (provided the tests with internal bay goes well). Then, UA might be able to get some on air by 2027.
