TUSAŞ Delivers First Two HÜRKUŞ-2 Trainers to the Turkish Air Force, Targeting 55 Aircraft by 2028

Quick take: The first two HÜRKUŞ-2 basic trainer aircraft, developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ), entered service with the Turkish Air Force on September 28, 2026, following a delivery ceremony at TUSAŞ’s Kahramankazan facility near Ankara. According to the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB), 12 aircraft are due to be delivered by the end of 2026, rising to roughly two per month from 2027, with the full 55-aircraft program set to close out in 2028.

A Delivery Ceremony in Kahramankazan

The ceremony was attended by SSB President Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün, Air Force Commander General Rafet Dalkıran, and TUSAŞ General Manager Mehmet Demiroğlu. Both aircraft, which had completed acceptance testing, performed a formation flypast to mark the handover.

In his remarks, Görgün pointed to the broader push to raise domestic content across defense platforms toward 100 percent, framing HÜRKUŞ-2 as a concrete step toward meeting the Air Force’s requirement for an indigenous basic trainer.

What Changed From the Earlier HÜRKUŞ

HÜRKUŞ-2 is an upgraded iteration of TUSAŞ’s earlier HÜRKUŞ-B airframe, incorporating structural weight reduction and aerodynamic refinements developed in response to operator feedback. The updated avionics suite is intended to lift the type’s performance within the basic-training segment.

The program runs under a contract between SSB and TUSAŞ to meet the Air Force’s pilot-training needs with a domestically built platform, and covers a total of 55 aircraft.

Delivery Schedule and Targets

Per the published schedule, 12 HÜRKUŞ-2 aircraft are expected to enter the inventory by the end of 2026. From 2027, the production tempo is meant to rise to roughly two aircraft a month, a pace that, if sustained, would close out the program in 2028.

That timeline marks a transition period in which the Air Force’s basic-training fleet is consolidated around a single domestic type, easing both logistics and a unified training syllabus as older trainer types are phased out.

Why It Matters

HÜRKUŞ-2 stands out as the first Turkish manned military aircraft program to reach a serial delivery stage. Other indigenous manned platforms, such as KAAN and HÜRJET, remain in development and early flight-test phases, making HÜRKUŞ-2 the first category to actually reach squadron service.

The handover is therefore a concrete indicator that TUSAŞ is scaling up serial production tempo in the basic-trainer segment alongside its larger fighter and jet-trainer programs. Hitting the 2028 target would mean the Air Force has moved the first rung of its pilot-training pipeline entirely onto a domestic platform.

Sources

• DHA, “HÜRKUŞ-2, Türk Hava Kuvvetleri’ne teslim edildi,” September 28, 2026, dha.com.tr — used for ceremony details, attendees and date.
• Yeni Asır, “HÜRKUŞ-2, Türk Hava Kuvvetleri’ne teslim edildi,” September 28, 2026, yeniasir.com.tr — used to confirm the ceremony and the 2028 program target.
• DonanımHaber, “Türkiye’nin milli eğitim uçağı HÜRKUŞ-2 envantere girdi,” September 2026, donanimhaber.com — used for HÜRKUŞ-2’s technical differences from HÜRKUŞ-B and the delivery schedule (12 aircraft in 2026, ~2/month from 2027).