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As Türkiye expands production of its major defence platforms, from the KAAN fighter jet and Hürjet aircraft to the Gökbey helicopter, Altay tank, and SOM and Atmaca missiles, the test of defence sovereignty has shifted to the engine. This component enables these platforms to move and sustain operations, and determines how independently they can be produced and exported.
The engine’s importance stems from the demands placed on it. It requires materials that withstand heat and pressure, control systems that regulate fuel and response, and extensive testing to establish reliability. It also needs a maintenance and spare-parts network to keep it running. Control over engine technology has therefore become a practical measure of the independence of Turkish weaponry in service, production and export.
Three companies are pursuing this effort on different fronts. TEI, or TUSAŞ Engine Industries, leads work on engines for aircraft, drones and helicopters, as well as military turbine engines.
Kale Jet Engines focuses on engines for missiles and loitering munitions, where propulsion is a decisive component of cruise and anti-ship missiles. BMC Power develops land-vehicle powerpacks that combine engines, transmissions and cooling systems to sustain operations in the field.
The engine bottleneck extends beyond these three companies across Türkiye’s defence industry. In 2024, Haluk Bayraktar, chief executive of Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar, said that “the missing piece is the engine.”
This report, published by NoonPost as part of the “Arsenal of the Republic” series, traces Türkiye’s shift from building platforms to developing its own propulsion systems, which provide mobility, endurance and freedom to export.
The engine: Türkiye’s gateway to defence sovereignty
The T129 ATAK helicopter illustrates what dependence on a foreign engine means when it comes to exports. It emerged from a Turkish programme to develop a domestic version of the Italian A129 Mangusta, which TUSAŞ adapted for the Turkish armed forces with Turkish mission systems, weapons and communications.
Its CTS800-4A engine, however, remained tied to the LHTEC project, a collaboration between US company Honeywell and Britain’s Rolls-Royce, both specialists in aviation systems and engines.
In July 2018, Pakistan signed a deal to buy 30 ATAK helicopters under a contract estimated at about $1.5bn, including training, munitions, spare parts and logistical support. It marked the Turkish attack helicopter’s biggest breakthrough abroad.
Deliveries were then delayed for a prolonged period because the CTS800-4A engine required an export licence tied to its western suppliers. This effectively gave Washington the power to obstruct a deal even though the helicopter had been developed and the contract signed.
In March 2021, US defence publication Defense News reported that Washington’s objection to export licences for ATAK helicopter engines had stalled the Pakistani deal. In January 2022, British defence publication Janes reported that Washington had blocked the sale of the engines to Pakistan while granting a similar export licence to the Philippines.
KAAN and HÜRJET: Turkish jets at the mercy of foreign suppliers
KAAN brings the challenge into the realm of fighter jet engines. In May 2026, GE Aerospace, the US aircraft engine and aviation systems company, said the Turkish fighter was powered by F110 engines, the model also used in F-16 fighter jets.
KAAN made its first flight in 2024 using two of these engines, a major achievement for TAI in getting the national fighter airborne. Future production, however, requires a heavier domestically developed engine: for a fighter of this calibre, industrial sovereignty depends as much on propulsion as on the airframe and other systems.
Foreign dependence is also evident in the HÜRJET jet trainer, which uses the US-made General Electric F404 engine.
In July 2024, GE Aerospace signed a memorandum of understanding with TAI and TEI to assess integrating the F404 into new versions of the aircraft. In May 2026, it announced an agreement with TAI to supply the engine for HÜRJET.
This dependence took on greater significance as plans to introduce HÜRJET in Spain advanced. In July 2025, TAI signed an agreement with Airbus to accelerate the aircraft’s integration into the Spanish Air Force. In December 2025, those plans became an official future combat training programme, CITS/SITEA 2, covering 30 aircraft, with initial deliveries scheduled between 2028 and 2029.
Altay: When the powerpack holds up the tank
The Altay tank illustrates a different set of constraints on land. Tanks require a complete powerpack incorporating the engine, transmission, cooling and control systems, all integrated within the hull.
The engine bottleneck began with the European powerpack used in the early prototypes, which relied on the MTU MT883 engine and RENK HSWL 295TM transmission.
In November 2020, Defense News reported that Ankara had hoped to use the German powerpack, but talks had failed because of a German ban on arms exports to Türkiye.
In October 2021, the same publication reported preliminary agreements with two South Korean companies to supply the engine and transmission. Meanwhile, BMC Power was making progress on BATU, a domestically developed powerpack combining the engine, transmission and cooling system.
These cases explain the engine’s particular importance to Türkiye’s defence industry. It shifts the question from who designs and arms a platform to who controls its operation, delivery and export. The effort to develop engines spans aircraft, missiles and land vehicles, with each Turkish company progressing at a different pace and facing a different industrial challenge.
TEI and the battle over aircraft engines
The clearest industrial foundation for Türkiye’s defence engine sector took shape at TEI in 1985, when it began assembling, testing and manufacturing parts for the F110 engines used in F-16 fighter jets. It later expanded into major overhauls and support throughout the service life of foreign engines. This work gave Türkiye valuable manufacturing and testing expertise, but remained tied to engines produced under licence or designed abroad.
From 2004, TEI began smaller domestic design projects, including the TJ35, TP38 and TJ90. These helped build design and testing capabilities before the company moved on to larger operational programmes.
Over the past decade, that expertise has extended beyond assembly, testing and maintenance to domestically developed engines such as the PD170, TS1400 and TF6000, and ultimately to the TF35000 programme for the KAAN fighter jet.
The TEI-PD170 provided the first practical proof that Türkiye had moved from discussing a domestic engine to fielding one on an operational aircraft. It was first run on 30 January 2017 and completed its first successful flight on the ANKA platform on 27 December 2018.
The engine entered serial production in 2019, making it Türkiye’s first near-complete success in developing engines for military aviation.
The PD170 family comprises heavy diesel engines for medium-altitude, long-endurance drones, a category suited to ANKA and AKSUNGUR. In 2024, Anadolu Agency also linked the engine to missions involving AKSUNGUR and Bayraktar TB3.
Its contribution is particularly evident in AKSUNGUR. Turkish Aerospace Industries credits the engine with long-endurance flights, including one lasting 41 hours, and performance above 40,000 feet in later tests. Compared with larger projects, the PD170 appears to have effectively closed part of the company’s drone capability gap.
The PD222 followed as an attempt to increase power within the same category. TEI presents it as an engine with a maximum output of 222 horsepower and a service life of up to 3,600 hours. In March 2023, TEI general manager Mahmut Faruk Akşit said it had reached a certain level of maturity, completed endurance testing and could serve the same applications as the PD170.
Even so, the PD222 has so far remained closer to a promising engine undergoing validation, with announced specifications and endurance tests but no service record or serial production comparable to the PD170.
For helicopters, the TS1400 has been the most significant development. The turboshaft engine project officially began on 8 March 2017, with a baseline output of 1,400 shaft horsepower.
On 19 April 2023, the engine made its first flight aboard the GÖKBEY helicopter. In July 2024, the company announced that it had reached a record 1,740 horsepower in testing. That figure indicates a significant reserve of power for the helicopter, particularly in harsh operating conditions or emergencies.
Although GÖKBEY first flew with the TS1400 in 2023, the helicopter’s public product page still lists foreign-made LHTEC CTS800-4AT engines in its specifications.
TEI entered a more demanding phase of turbine development with the TF6000, which it describes as Türkiye’s first domestically developed military turbofan engine. It produces 6,000 pounds of dry thrust — its baseline output before an afterburner is used.
The engine was successfully run for the first time in March 2024. Haluk Görgün, head of Türkiye’s Presidency of Defence Industries, described it as “a milestone on the path toward indigenous military engines.”
It was also run publicly on a mobile test platform at the Teknofest aviation exhibition in September 2025. Mahmut Akşit said the TF6000 was still undergoing tests to establish its maturity and readiness.
The TF10000 is a derivative of this engine, which TEI presents as an afterburning version capable of producing up to 10,000 pounds of thrust. The company sees it as an important technological step towards engines for Turkish aircraft.
In September 2025, Akşit said priority had shifted to the TF10000 because Turkish aircraft needed afterburner capability, linking the engine to platforms such as Kızılelma.
As of June 2026, the TF10000 remained a publicly announced development project with defined specifications and a strategic role, but no announced completed engine run or flight. The TF35000 is the most ambitious project in this line. TEI presents it as a turbofan for the KAAN fighter, targeting up to 35,000 pounds of thrust. It is being developed with TRMotor under the Presidency of Defence Industries.
TRMotor was established in 2017 and became wholly owned by TAI in 2021, serving as its specialist arm for engineering the fighter’s propulsion systems.
In February 2026, Akşit said the KAAN engine had reached the critical design review, or CDR, stage. This is an important development milestone, but precedes running the engine, flight testing and integration into the fighter.
TEI therefore appears to be midway through a long development process. It has closed an important gap in heavy drone engines through the PD170, flown a domestic helicopter engine with the TS1400, and opened the way to military turbine development through the TF6000.
With the TF10000 and TF35000, it is entering a field occupied by far fewer companies worldwide. The challenges now include exceptionally durable materials, afterburners, digital controls, long-term reliability and test facilities. These will determine Türkiye’s ability to resolve its fighter engine challenge.
The debate over the KAAN engine was therefore never solely technical. From the outset, it also concerned intellectual property rights and freedom to export. Ismail Demir, former head of Türkiye’s Presidency of Defence Industries, said producing the engine in Türkiye and owning its intellectual property rights was a fundamental condition, because Ankara did not want restrictions on exporting the fighter.
Kale and the road to missile engines
Kale Jet Engines is following a different path from TEI, focusing on missile engines. These have shorter lifespans and operating cycles than aircraft engines, but work in harsh conditions and are critical components of cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles and loitering munitions.
Kale began developing engines in 2012. The following year, the KTJ-3200 underwent its first operational test, before the programme later expanded into a full range of engines.
Kale describes the KTJ-3200 as Türkiye’s first domestically developed turbojet engine — in this case, one designed for missiles — and says it provides 3,200 newtons of thrust for SOM and ATMACA missiles.
The KTJ-3200 reached an important milestone on 10 March 2024, when an ATMACA missile powered by Kale’s domestic engine hit its target. The test demonstrated the engine’s ability to operate inside an anti-ship missile, where low-altitude flight over the sea requires precise integration of the engine, fuel, control systems and airframe.
Kale also says the engine completed flight tests with ATMACA, taking it beyond laboratory testing and demonstrating its performance on an actual platform. The company presents the KTJ-1750 as a smaller turbojet producing 1,750 newtons of thrust, and says it provides propulsion for the ÇAKIR missile.
On 11 May 2023, the first test launch of a ÇAKIR missile from an Akıncı drone took place, using the KTJ-1750 engine.
Roketsan’s ÇAKIR product page confirms that it uses the domestic KTJ-1750, making the programme an example of a new missile developed with a Turkish engine from the outset.
The larger KTJ-3700 produces 3,700 newtons of thrust. Kale says it is intended to power KARA ATMACA, the land-based version of the ATMACA missile family.
In August 2024, Türkiye’s Presidency of Defence Industries said a KARA ATMACA test using the KTJ-3700 had achieved the missile’s longest flight to date and hit its target. At this stage, Kale appeared to be expanding a Turkish engine family to cover smaller and larger missiles, as well as land-, sea- and air-launched systems.
In September 2025, Kale signed an agreement with Roketsan to supply serially produced KTJ-3200A, KTJ-3200S, KTJ-1750 and KTJ-3700 engines for ATMACA, KARA ATMACA, SOM and ÇAKIR missiles.
This milestone places Kale at a more advanced stage in Türkiye’s engine development effort. The KTJ family has moved beyond testing to the supply of engines for several missile programmes, from SOM and ATMACA to ÇAKIR and KARA ATMACA.
Its progress differs from that of fighter engines and tank powerpacks, where the transition from prototypes and testing to operational platforms and stable production takes longer.
Exports marked another milestone. In April 2025, Kale announced its first agreement to export the KTJ-3200 to Brazil, making it the first Turkish turbojet engine to be exported. It was to be integrated into Brazil’s MANSUP-ER anti-ship missile programme, produced by SIATT.
Kale’s development programme stands out as the most coherent of the three companies, with a clear relationship between each engine and its platform: the KTJ-1750 for ÇAKIR, the KTJ-3200 for SOM and ATMACA, and the KTJ-3700 for KARA ATMACA.
By late 2024, the company said all KTJ-series engines had passed flight tests. It moved into serial production and exports in 2025. In this field in particular, Türkiye appears to have turned engines from a source of dependence into a means of extending its industrial and export influence.
BMC Power and the challenge of the tank engine
BMC Power faces different challenges from those in aviation and missiles. For land-vehicle engines, torque, endurance, cooling, power transmission and performance over terrain are central requirements, alongside long-term integration within tank and heavy armoured-vehicle hulls.
The company therefore presents its products as powerpacks and transmission systems. The engine forms part of a larger system incorporating the transmission, cooling and controls, particularly in tracked vehicles and tanks.
BMC Power began building a range of engines, starting with the 400-horsepower TUNA, followed by the 600-horsepower AZRA and LEVEND, the 1,000-horsepower UTKU and the 1,500-horsepower BATU.
Through this gradual approach, it sought to build a land-vehicle propulsion portfolio extending from light armoured vehicles to the main battle tank, rather than being known solely for the Altay project.
At the lower end of the range is TUNA, a diesel engine first run in 2020. In February 2023, BMC Power announced delivery of the first batch after renaming its TTZA engines TUNA. General manager Mustafa Kaval said serial production had begun and the first 20 of 90 engines had been delivered for use in VURAN vehicles.
The company later reported TUNA’s integration into VURAN and KİRPİ vehicles, saying vehicles fitted with the domestic engine had entered the inventory.
In the 600-horsepower category, AZRA is a diesel engine first run in 2018. The company presents it as an engine for tank transporters, logistics vehicles and military tractors, alongside a marine version from the same family.
Anadolu reported in 2025 that testing of the AZRA Gen-2 for tank transporters and logistics vehicles was progressing successfully.
For maritime use, the company presents LEVEND as a 600-horsepower diesel engine whose integration into platforms began in 2022. In July 2025, BMC Power announced its integration into the Istanbul Naval Shipyard Command’s Towing Vehicle-25 and said it had entered active service on 18 July that year.
LEVEND has also been linked to the Marlin unmanned maritime platform. Its role is narrower than that of tank engines, but its announced maritime use is more clearly established.
Between these categories and Altay sits UTKU, a 1,000-horsepower powerpack comprising an engine and transmission. It is intended for light tracked vehicles weighing up to 45 tons, as well as the FIRTINA self-propelled howitzer.
BMC Power says UTKU’s engine was first run successfully in 2020, and that UTKU and BATU engines and transmissions were shipped to the Sakarya Test Centre in October 2024.
The range culminates in BATU, the cornerstone of the Altay programme. BMC Power describes it as a 1,500-horsepower powerpack comprising an engine, transmission and cooling pack, whose V12 engine was first run in 2021.
In early January 2026, the company announced that the engine’s factory acceptance work had been completed. At the end of December 2025, Anadolu had reported that testing and qualification of the project’s domestic transmission were continuing according to plan.
Altay explains the need for this gradual approach. Its early prototypes used the EuroPowerPack, incorporating the MTU MT883 engine and RENK HSWL 295TM transmission, before plans to use the German system faltered under restrictions on arms exports to Türkiye.
In October 2021, Defense News reported letters of intent with South Korean companies to supply the engine and transmission. The South Korean powerpack was subsequently integrated into the “Yeni Altay” between April and December 2022, and driving tests were completed successfully.
In October 2025, Anadolu reported that serial production of the “Altay” had begun with an imported powerpack, to be followed later by the domestic “BATU” powerpack under development at BMC Power.
Three companies moving at three speeds towards independence
TEI and TRMotor offer a concise technical explanation of why engine development is so difficult. For fighter engines and advanced turbines, the companies describe the need for superalloys, advanced coatings, cooling technologies, rotating blades and afterburners, as well as the challenge of temperatures that ordinary materials cannot withstand.
TRMotor notes that many aircraft engine alloys are produced by only a limited number of companies worldwide and may be subject to export restrictions. The materials themselves are therefore part of the struggle for sovereignty.
Control systems are a second bottleneck. For the PD170, PD222 and TS1400, TEI highlights FADEC digital control systems or redundant ECU electronic control units, software developed in-house and designs capable of certification.
The engine is thus an integrated system governing fuel, pressure, altitude, responsiveness, operation and protection against faults. Its software and digital controls are as central to industrial sovereignty as alloys and turbine blades.
Testing is a third decisive requirement. Kale says its altitude and speed test systems simulate conditions up to Mach 0.95 and altitudes approaching 10 kilometres. It also has systems for testing control units, engine fuel, ignition and generators.
BMC Power tests land-vehicle engines as complete powerpacks incorporating the engine, transmission and cooling system. These undergo tests for climbing, braking, turning and operation at angles and on slopes.
These requirements explain the lengthy production process. An engine must repeatedly deliver the same performance under heat, pressure, vibration, altitude and load. It also needs a production line, spare parts, maintenance, certification documents and accumulated operating hours. This is why it appears to be the slowest component to reach maturity and the most sensitive to embargoes, materials and supply chains.
Türkiye’s engine development effort is ultimately moving at three speeds. Kale is progressing fastest in rocket engines, with the KTJ family having passed flight tests, secured supply contracts and entered export markets.
TEI is pursuing a broader and more complex programme. It has closed a significant part of the drone and helicopter engine gap through the PD170 and TS1400, while opening the way to military turbine development through the TF6000. The fighter engine, however, remains at the design and development stage.
BMC Power faces a longer development process for land vehicles. It has begun delivering lower-power engines while advancing towards 1,000- and 1,500-horsepower powerpacks, where transmission, cooling and reliability are integral to the engine’s role.
These developments show that the “arsenal of the republic” project has reached its most complex phase. Türkiye has built air, land and missile platforms, expanded its presence in the arms market and raised the standing of its companies in the global defence industry. The measure of independence now rests on who controls the propulsion systems that move those platforms, keep them in service and allow their export without waiting for a decision from abroad.
At the political level, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has affirmed Ankara’s determination to close this gap. Speaking at an event related to the Gokbey helicopter, he said Türkiye “will not rest” until it achieves full independence in the defence industry.