Turkish Aerospace Unveils Evolved 5th-Gen KAAN Prototypes with Advanced Sensors and Refined Design
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Turkish Aerospace Industries released new footage on February 21, 2025 showing the KAAN National Combat Aircraft in three prototype forms, P0, P1 and P2, exactly two years after its maiden flight. The video signals Türkiye’s transition from a single demonstrator to a structured multi-aircraft flight test program, strengthening its push for sovereign airpower and advanced fighter development.
On 21 February 2025, Turkish Aerospace Industries released new video footage on its official X account showing the National Combat Aircraft KAAN in three distinct prototype configurations, P0, P1 and P2. Published exactly two years after KAAN’s maiden flight on 21 February 2024, the video underlines how rapidly the program is transitioning from a single demonstrator to a structured prototype fleet supporting flight test and systems integration. The accompanying message highlights the determination, faith and will of the Turkish nation, linking KAAN directly to the concept of sovereign control of the national airspace. The footage is now the most detailed public illustration of how the design is evolving from the initial P0 airframe toward an operational configuration.
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Turkish Aerospace Industries released new footage of its KAAN fighter showing three prototypes, P0, P1 and P2, signaling a shift from a single demonstrator to a structured multi-aircraft flight test program aimed at advancing Türkiye’s indigenous fifth-generation combat capability (Picture Source: Turkish Aerospace Industries / Aselsan)
The new video is structured around three complementary storylines. First, it briefly revisits the already familiar P0 aircraft, filmed in the flight-test environment that has supported the first envelope-expansion sorties since the initial 13-minute debut flight in February 2024. Second, the camera moves inside the final assembly area, where P2 appears in a partially completed state, still on its jigs, confirming that the parallel build strategy is fully underway. Finally, and most significantly, the footage dwells at length on P1, which has been identified by the manufacturer as the first fully integrated flight-test prototype and is scheduled, according to previous official announcements, to begin its own flight campaign in 2026. The video comes shortly after the visit of Defence Industry Agency president Haluk Görgün to the KAAN final assembly line, where P1 and P2 were physically unveiled, and can be read as a deliberate message that Türkiye is entering a new, more intensive phase of its next-generation fighter effort.
Externally, P1 in the footage appears almost fully assembled. The aircraft is shown in primer, with most access panels already in place and minor work still visible around the lower section of the twin canted vertical stabilizers and their fairings. The twin General Electric F110 engines that power all early KAAN prototypes are clearly installed, consistent with earlier statements that a dedicated pool of engines supports the prototype fleet. Compared with P0, P1 exhibits several visible refinements. The lateral air intakes have been moved slightly aft relative to the cockpit and show a noticeably larger cross-section, a change that likely improves both mass flow and internal volume for systems and weapons bays. Panel lines and chine geometry around the nose and forward fuselage appear cleaner and more faceted, in line with low-observable design practice intended to better manage radar cross-section hot spots within the X-band.
The new footage also suggests that the fuselage incorporates structural refinements intended to optimize internal volume and systems integration. In particular, the mid-section appears visibly broadened, indicating an effort to increase usable internal space for mission avionics, power-generation and distribution units, cooling systems and potentially additional fuel capacity. Such a modification supports the integration of more advanced sensors, electronic-warfare suites and computing architecture without compromising aerodynamic balance. This wider central fuselage is also consistent with an internal layout engineered for efficiency, enabling improved weight distribution and maintainability while preserving growth margins for future upgrades. In the context of next-generation combat aircraft design, these changes point to a platform conceived with scalability in mind, able to accommodate rising electrical power demands and more complex mission systems associated with multi-domain operations.
Another visible difference concerns the tailplane architecture. A further airframe refinement can be observed along the trailing edge of the main wings: on P0, the trailing-edge panels do not appear perfectly symmetrical in length, with one section looking slightly shorter than the adjacent one and creating a more segmented, less uniform layout, whereas on P1 (the light-coloured “white” aircraft in the footage) the movable panels are more evenly proportioned and better aligned along the trailing edge, giving a cleaner and more continuous aerodynamic and stealth-oriented appearance. On P0, the horizontal stabilizers appear slightly broader at the root with a less aggressive trailing-edge shaping, characteristic of an earlier aerodynamic iteration. On P1, the stabilators have been refined with a more pronounced trapezoidal geometry, sharper angular tips and cleaner edge alignment. The updated surfaces look closer in form to those of the F-22, particularly in their sweep, clipped trailing edges and overall stealth-oriented planform integration. This evolution suggests both aerodynamic and low-observable refinements, aimed at improving pitch authority and high-alpha controllability while further reducing radar signature through better alignment of edges and surfaces within the overall stealth design philosophy. Together with the revised intakes and fuselage broadening, these changes confirm that KAAN is moving rapidly from an initial demonstrator configuration toward a more mature fifth-generation airframe standard.
The sensor suite visible on P1 marks an important step toward the definitive combat configuration of KAAN. Just ahead of the canopy, the video reveals a faceted aperture for the Karat infrared search and track (IRST) system, providing passive long-range air-to-air detection and tracking capability without emitting radar energy. Below the nose, another faceted, low-observable fairing houses the Toygun electro-optical targeting system developed by Aselsan, and the footage strongly indicates that this unit is already physically integrated on P1. Toygun combines high-definition day-TV, MWIR/SWIR thermal imaging, laser range-finding and designation, and on-board image processing with advanced tracking algorithms. Designed for low-observable integration under the aircraft’s nose, it supports precision air-to-surface strikes and long-range air-to-air identification while respecting KAAN’s stealth requirements. In parallel, KAAN’s mission-system architecture is intended to work with the Murad active electronically scanned array radar and an integrated radio-frequency system that fuses radar, IRST, EOTS and distributed aperture sensors in a single mission computer. The appearance of both Karat and Toygun on P1 therefore signals that Türkiye is now transitioning from basic aerodynamic and systems-safety demonstrations toward genuine fifth-generation sensor fusion and targeting trials on an indigenous platform.
From a test-campaign perspective, the new imagery clarifies the division of roles across the prototype fleet. P0, which has already conducted multiple sorties expanding altitude and speed in a conventional flight-test envelope, has essentially validated that the airframe, flight-control system and propulsion integration meet baseline expectations. P1 is configured as the first fully instrumented systems and performance prototype, dedicated to validating refined aerodynamics, weapons-bay environment, radar and electro-optical integration and mission-system software in realistic profiles. P2, seen in structural assembly, will likely focus on further structural and systems qualification, including electromagnetic compatibility, maintainability and potential fatigue testing. Official roadmaps foresee additional prototypes up to P4, P5 and P6 to absorb further aerodynamic improvements and to progressively incorporate the national TF-35000 turbofan once it reaches flight maturity in the next decade. In this framework, the 2026 flight-test phase with P1 and subsequent prototypes is expected to be dense, with a high sortie rate to mature flight-control laws, weapons-release parameters and sensor-fusion algorithms under operationally representative conditions.
Operationally, the configuration shown in the video aligns closely with the air-superiority and multirole doctrine of the Turkish Air Force. KAAN is designed as a low-observable, twin-engine platform with internal weapons bays, high thrust-to-weight ratio and advanced avionics, capable of conducting both air-dominance and deep-strike missions in heavily contested airspace. The integration of an IRST/EOTS suite from the outset is particularly important for counter-stealth operations and for engagements where emission control is essential, such as beyond-visual-range intercepts against sophisticated air-defence networks. Combined with a GaN-based AESA radar and a digital electronic-warfare backbone, KAAN is being positioned as a true sensor-shooter node in a wider network, able to manage its own survivability while contributing targeting data to other air and surface assets. This architecture directly supports manned-unmanned teaming concepts already being demonstrated by Türkiye with platforms such as ANKA-3 and Kızılelma, in which KAAN can occupy the role of mission commander at the rear of a formation of loyal-wingman unmanned combat air vehicles and high-speed decoys.
For Türkiye, the tactical importance of the P1 and P2 reveal goes beyond a single aircraft. The footage confirms that national industry has mastered the industrialisation steps necessary to run multiple complex prototypes in parallel: structural assembly, systems integration, ground testing and flight trials are now clearly overlapping rather than occurring in strict sequence. This is central to the objective of replacing legacy F-16s with a sovereign fifth-generation platform and ensuring that Turkish pilots can rely on domestically controlled mission-data files, electronic-warfare libraries and weapons integration. The deployment of Toygun and Karat on KAAN also consolidates the country’s electro-optical and sensor-fusion ecosystem, creating synergies with other national programmes and reducing exposure to export-control constraints on critical technologies such as targeting pods, IRSTs and modern fire-control radars.
Within NATO, KAAN’s progression supports a broader trend toward a more diversified, yet interoperable, fifth-generation force structure. As a twin-engine fighter optimised for high-end air-defence penetration and air-superiority missions, KAAN will significantly increase the resilience of Alliance air power in the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theatres once introduced alongside existing fourth- and fifth-generation assets. Its architecture is being developed to be compatible with NATO datalinks and identification systems, while its indigenous sensor and weapons suite allows Türkiye to tailor rules of engagement, electronic-warfare profiles and payload configurations to its specific operational environment. In crisis scenarios, a fully operational KAAN fleet will strengthen deterrence by complicating the planning calculus of any potential adversary considering challenging Turkish airspace or attempting to deny Allied access to key maritime chokepoints.
The geostrategic implications of the programme for the wider region are equally significant. By demonstrating, through this latest video, that P1 is structurally complete with advanced mission sensors already installed and that P2 is progressing steadily on the line, Türkiye is signalling long-term commitment to an industrial and operational capability that few states possess. A mature KAAN line will not only safeguard national freedom of action in air operations, but also create an exportable solution for friendly air forces seeking a fifth-generation-class platform from a trusted partner. The high domestic content of the aircraft, including its avionics, electro-optics and, in the next decade, its TF-35000 engine, will allow flexible cooperation models ranging from co-production to local maintenance, repair and overhaul. In parallel, the programme underpins Türkiye’s broader defence-industrial posture, in which aerospace, electronics, propulsion and materials all contribute to a strategic technological base that supports national policy and Alliance responsibilities in a rapidly changing security environment.
This new KAAN video therefore goes far beyond commemorating a historic first flight. It demonstrates in concrete images that the National Combat Aircraft has moved from a symbolic prototype to a structured family of test articles, each assigned to a clear role in maturing the airframe, propulsion and mission-system architecture. With P1 now virtually complete, carrying key indigenous sensors such as Karat and Toygun and showcasing refined aerodynamics, trailing-edge optimisation and internal-volume enhancement, and with P2 advancing on the assembly line, Türkiye is entering a decisive phase in which engineering progress will translate into operational capability. For Turkish decision-makers, aircrews and engineers, the message is clear: the nation’s effort to secure independent control of the air domain is on track, and KAAN is steadily taking its place as a central pillar of both national defence and the future airpower posture of the Alliance.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
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Turkish Aerospace Industries released new footage on February 21, 2025 showing the KAAN National Combat Aircraft in three prototype forms, P0, P1 and P2, exactly two years after its maiden flight. The video signals Türkiye’s transition from a single demonstrator to a structured multi-aircraft flight test program, strengthening its push for sovereign airpower and advanced fighter development.
On 21 February 2025, Turkish Aerospace Industries released new video footage on its official X account showing the National Combat Aircraft KAAN in three distinct prototype configurations, P0, P1 and P2. Published exactly two years after KAAN’s maiden flight on 21 February 2024, the video underlines how rapidly the program is transitioning from a single demonstrator to a structured prototype fleet supporting flight test and systems integration. The accompanying message highlights the determination, faith and will of the Turkish nation, linking KAAN directly to the concept of sovereign control of the national airspace. The footage is now the most detailed public illustration of how the design is evolving from the initial P0 airframe toward an operational configuration.
Turkish Aerospace Industries released new footage of its KAAN fighter showing three prototypes, P0, P1 and P2, signaling a shift from a single demonstrator to a structured multi-aircraft flight test program aimed at advancing Türkiye’s indigenous fifth-generation combat capability (Picture Source: Turkish Aerospace Industries / Aselsan)
The new video is structured around three complementary storylines. First, it briefly revisits the already familiar P0 aircraft, filmed in the flight-test environment that has supported the first envelope-expansion sorties since the initial 13-minute debut flight in February 2024. Second, the camera moves inside the final assembly area, where P2 appears in a partially completed state, still on its jigs, confirming that the parallel build strategy is fully underway. Finally, and most significantly, the footage dwells at length on P1, which has been identified by the manufacturer as the first fully integrated flight-test prototype and is scheduled, according to previous official announcements, to begin its own flight campaign in 2026. The video comes shortly after the visit of Defence Industry Agency president Haluk Görgün to the KAAN final assembly line, where P1 and P2 were physically unveiled, and can be read as a deliberate message that Türkiye is entering a new, more intensive phase of its next-generation fighter effort.
Externally, P1 in the footage appears almost fully assembled. The aircraft is shown in primer, with most access panels already in place and minor work still visible around the lower section of the twin canted vertical stabilizers and their fairings. The twin General Electric F110 engines that power all early KAAN prototypes are clearly installed, consistent with earlier statements that a dedicated pool of engines supports the prototype fleet. Compared with P0, P1 exhibits several visible refinements. The lateral air intakes have been moved slightly aft relative to the cockpit and show a noticeably larger cross-section, a change that likely improves both mass flow and internal volume for systems and weapons bays. Panel lines and chine geometry around the nose and forward fuselage appear cleaner and more faceted, in line with low-observable design practice intended to better manage radar cross-section hot spots within the X-band.
The new footage also suggests that the fuselage incorporates structural refinements intended to optimize internal volume and systems integration. In particular, the mid-section appears visibly broadened, indicating an effort to increase usable internal space for mission avionics, power-generation and distribution units, cooling systems and potentially additional fuel capacity. Such a modification supports the integration of more advanced sensors, electronic-warfare suites and computing architecture without compromising aerodynamic balance. This wider central fuselage is also consistent with an internal layout engineered for efficiency, enabling improved weight distribution and maintainability while preserving growth margins for future upgrades. In the context of next-generation combat aircraft design, these changes point to a platform conceived with scalability in mind, able to accommodate rising electrical power demands and more complex mission systems associated with multi-domain operations.
Another visible difference concerns the tailplane architecture. A further airframe refinement can be observed along the trailing edge of the main wings: on P0, the trailing-edge panels do not appear perfectly symmetrical in length, with one section looking slightly shorter than the adjacent one and creating a more segmented, less uniform layout, whereas on P1 (the light-coloured “white” aircraft in the footage) the movable panels are more evenly proportioned and better aligned along the trailing edge, giving a cleaner and more continuous aerodynamic and stealth-oriented appearance. On P0, the horizontal stabilizers appear slightly broader at the root with a less aggressive trailing-edge shaping, characteristic of an earlier aerodynamic iteration. On P1, the stabilators have been refined with a more pronounced trapezoidal geometry, sharper angular tips and cleaner edge alignment. The updated surfaces look closer in form to those of the F-22, particularly in their sweep, clipped trailing edges and overall stealth-oriented planform integration. This evolution suggests both aerodynamic and low-observable refinements, aimed at improving pitch authority and high-alpha controllability while further reducing radar signature through better alignment of edges and surfaces within the overall stealth design philosophy. Together with the revised intakes and fuselage broadening, these changes confirm that KAAN is moving rapidly from an initial demonstrator configuration toward a more mature fifth-generation airframe standard.
The sensor suite visible on P1 marks an important step toward the definitive combat configuration of KAAN. Just ahead of the canopy, the video reveals a faceted aperture for the Karat infrared search and track (IRST) system, providing passive long-range air-to-air detection and tracking capability without emitting radar energy. Below the nose, another faceted, low-observable fairing houses the Toygun electro-optical targeting system developed by Aselsan, and the footage strongly indicates that this unit is already physically integrated on P1. Toygun combines high-definition day-TV, MWIR/SWIR thermal imaging, laser range-finding and designation, and on-board image processing with advanced tracking algorithms. Designed for low-observable integration under the aircraft’s nose, it supports precision air-to-surface strikes and long-range air-to-air identification while respecting KAAN’s stealth requirements. In parallel, KAAN’s mission-system architecture is intended to work with the Murad active electronically scanned array radar and an integrated radio-frequency system that fuses radar, IRST, EOTS and distributed aperture sensors in a single mission computer. The appearance of both Karat and Toygun on P1 therefore signals that Türkiye is now transitioning from basic aerodynamic and systems-safety demonstrations toward genuine fifth-generation sensor fusion and targeting trials on an indigenous platform.
From a test-campaign perspective, the new imagery clarifies the division of roles across the prototype fleet. P0, which has already conducted multiple sorties expanding altitude and speed in a conventional flight-test envelope, has essentially validated that the airframe, flight-control system and propulsion integration meet baseline expectations. P1 is configured as the first fully instrumented systems and performance prototype, dedicated to validating refined aerodynamics, weapons-bay environment, radar and electro-optical integration and mission-system software in realistic profiles. P2, seen in structural assembly, will likely focus on further structural and systems qualification, including electromagnetic compatibility, maintainability and potential fatigue testing. Official roadmaps foresee additional prototypes up to P4, P5 and P6 to absorb further aerodynamic improvements and to progressively incorporate the national TF-35000 turbofan once it reaches flight maturity in the next decade. In this framework, the 2026 flight-test phase with P1 and subsequent prototypes is expected to be dense, with a high sortie rate to mature flight-control laws, weapons-release parameters and sensor-fusion algorithms under operationally representative conditions.
Operationally, the configuration shown in the video aligns closely with the air-superiority and multirole doctrine of the Turkish Air Force. KAAN is designed as a low-observable, twin-engine platform with internal weapons bays, high thrust-to-weight ratio and advanced avionics, capable of conducting both air-dominance and deep-strike missions in heavily contested airspace. The integration of an IRST/EOTS suite from the outset is particularly important for counter-stealth operations and for engagements where emission control is essential, such as beyond-visual-range intercepts against sophisticated air-defence networks. Combined with a GaN-based AESA radar and a digital electronic-warfare backbone, KAAN is being positioned as a true sensor-shooter node in a wider network, able to manage its own survivability while contributing targeting data to other air and surface assets. This architecture directly supports manned-unmanned teaming concepts already being demonstrated by Türkiye with platforms such as ANKA-3 and Kızılelma, in which KAAN can occupy the role of mission commander at the rear of a formation of loyal-wingman unmanned combat air vehicles and high-speed decoys.
For Türkiye, the tactical importance of the P1 and P2 reveal goes beyond a single aircraft. The footage confirms that national industry has mastered the industrialisation steps necessary to run multiple complex prototypes in parallel: structural assembly, systems integration, ground testing and flight trials are now clearly overlapping rather than occurring in strict sequence. This is central to the objective of replacing legacy F-16s with a sovereign fifth-generation platform and ensuring that Turkish pilots can rely on domestically controlled mission-data files, electronic-warfare libraries and weapons integration. The deployment of Toygun and Karat on KAAN also consolidates the country’s electro-optical and sensor-fusion ecosystem, creating synergies with other national programmes and reducing exposure to export-control constraints on critical technologies such as targeting pods, IRSTs and modern fire-control radars.
Within NATO, KAAN’s progression supports a broader trend toward a more diversified, yet interoperable, fifth-generation force structure. As a twin-engine fighter optimised for high-end air-defence penetration and air-superiority missions, KAAN will significantly increase the resilience of Alliance air power in the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theatres once introduced alongside existing fourth- and fifth-generation assets. Its architecture is being developed to be compatible with NATO datalinks and identification systems, while its indigenous sensor and weapons suite allows Türkiye to tailor rules of engagement, electronic-warfare profiles and payload configurations to its specific operational environment. In crisis scenarios, a fully operational KAAN fleet will strengthen deterrence by complicating the planning calculus of any potential adversary considering challenging Turkish airspace or attempting to deny Allied access to key maritime chokepoints.
The geostrategic implications of the programme for the wider region are equally significant. By demonstrating, through this latest video, that P1 is structurally complete with advanced mission sensors already installed and that P2 is progressing steadily on the line, Türkiye is signalling long-term commitment to an industrial and operational capability that few states possess. A mature KAAN line will not only safeguard national freedom of action in air operations, but also create an exportable solution for friendly air forces seeking a fifth-generation-class platform from a trusted partner. The high domestic content of the aircraft, including its avionics, electro-optics and, in the next decade, its TF-35000 engine, will allow flexible cooperation models ranging from co-production to local maintenance, repair and overhaul. In parallel, the programme underpins Türkiye’s broader defence-industrial posture, in which aerospace, electronics, propulsion and materials all contribute to a strategic technological base that supports national policy and Alliance responsibilities in a rapidly changing security environment.
This new KAAN video therefore goes far beyond commemorating a historic first flight. It demonstrates in concrete images that the National Combat Aircraft has moved from a symbolic prototype to a structured family of test articles, each assigned to a clear role in maturing the airframe, propulsion and mission-system architecture. With P1 now virtually complete, carrying key indigenous sensors such as Karat and Toygun and showcasing refined aerodynamics, trailing-edge optimisation and internal-volume enhancement, and with P2 advancing on the assembly line, Türkiye is entering a decisive phase in which engineering progress will translate into operational capability. For Turkish decision-makers, aircrews and engineers, the message is clear: the nation’s effort to secure independent control of the air domain is on track, and KAAN is steadily taking its place as a central pillar of both national defence and the future airpower posture of the Alliance.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
