KAAN

Turkey's bid to join the stealth-fighter club — the TAI KAAN (formerly TF-X) is a twin-engine, low-observable multirole fighter developed after Ankara's expulsion from the F-35 program, flown in prototype form in February 2024 and now under its first production contract: 20 Block 10 jets for the Turkish Air Force, with deliveries promised by the end of 2030. Indonesia has already signed for 48, Saudi Arabia circles with talk of 100 — and the whole plan still rides on an American engine, with the indigenous TF35000 years away.

Overview

The KAAN — "khan of khans," the program formerly known as TF-X/MMU — is Turkish Aerospace Industries' twin-engine, fifth-generation-marketed fighter, intended to replace the Turkish Air Force's F-16 fleet from the 2030s and to anchor Turkey's claim to full-spectrum aerospace sovereignty. It is the largest program in a defense industry that has already conquered the drone market with the Bayraktar TB2 and Akinci: a ~20-meter, ~35-tonne-class stealth-shaped airframe with internal weapons bays, Aselsan's MURAD AESA radar, and the indigenous GÖKTUĞ missile family. Three prototypes exist; the first, P0, flew on 21 February 2024. The Turkish Air Force signed for its first 20 Block 10 aircraft in May 2026 (initial requirement ~148), and Indonesia became the launch export customer with 48 jets signed in mid-2025. The catch sits in the tailpipe: every KAAN flying or contracted depends on the GE F110 — the sale of ~80 engines was only notified to the US Congress on 24 June 2026 — while the indigenous TF35000 engine is not expected in the jet before the early 2030s. The KAAN is real, flying and selling; whether it is a fifth-generation fighter in more than shape, and on whose permission it flies, are the open questions.

Development

Turkey approved an indigenous fighter in December 2010 and, after flirtations with foreign partners, committed in 2015 to a national design with BAE Systems signed as design collaborator in 2017 (~£100M), per Wikipedia. The program's strategic logic hardened in 2019 when the US expelled Turkey from the F-35 program over its S-400 purchase — the KAAN became the replacement for a stealth fleet Ankara had already paid toward. The renamed KAAN's maiden flight came on 21 February 2024 from Murted air base — a 13-minute, 230-knot sortie to 8,000 feet, per TWZ — with a second flight that May. Momentum since has been contractual as much as aeronautical: Azerbaijan joined as junior partner (2023); Indonesia signed a government-to-government deal for 48 jets on 11 June 2025 with the implementation contract following at IDEF in July, per Defense News — a reported $10 billion value traces to a single outlet and analysts at Forecast International have questioned its substance. In February 2026 Turkey's SSB unveiled three prototypes with visible airframe refinements, per Aviation Week, and at SAHA Expo in May 2026 the Turkish Air Force contracted its first 20 Block 10 aircraft, with SSB chief Haluk Görgün promising deliveries "by the close of 2030," per Breaking Defense — a slip from the earlier 2028 talk. On 24 June 2026 the US State Department notified Congress of the F110 engine sale (>$700 million, ~80 engines), per AeroTime — the approval the entire Block 10/20 plan waits on. The second prototype's first flight, promised for April–May 2026, had still not occurred by late June.

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