HÜRJET Locks Radar Onto Sister Jet in First MURAD AESA Test
Türkiye’s HÜRJET advanced jet trainer took a step toward becoming a genuine light combat aircraft on September 16, when the programme’s second prototype used an ASELSAN-built AESA radar to detect and lock onto the first prototype in flight — the first time the radar has tracked another aircraft in the air.
The test took place at Turkish Aerospace’s (TUSAŞ) Ankara facilities and was witnessed by Defence Industry Agency (SSB) President Haluk Görgün and Turkish Air Force Commander General Rafet Dalkıran. HÜRJET P2, fitted with ASELSAN’s domestically developed MURAD active electronically scanned array radar, detected HÜRJET P1 and achieved a radar lock on it from range during the flight. “This was a first,” Görgün said afterward. “Experiencing this, witnessing a historic moment and walking this path together with our entire team and valuable personnel is immensely meaningful.”
What the Test Actually Showed
A radar lock is a detection and tracking milestone, not a weapons-employment one — HÜRJET has not fired a missile guided by MURAD, and Turkish reporting on the test was explicit that a lock by itself does not constitute a completed air-to-air engagement. What it demonstrates is that the radar and the aircraft’s mission systems can find, classify and track another fighter-sized target in real flight conditions, which is the prerequisite step before any missile-guidance work can begin. MURAD is designed for both air-to-air and air-to-ground modes, including synthetic aperture radar imaging and ground-mapping functions, and ASELSAN has been testing variants of the same radar family on the F-16 fleet, the AKINCI UCAV and the KIZILELMA unmanned fighter.
The next step for HÜRJET’s air-to-air ambitions runs through TÜBİTAK SAGE’s GÖKDOĞAN beyond-visual-range and BOZDOĞAN within-visual-range missiles, the same weapons Türkiye is integrating across its KAAN fighter and unmanned combat aircraft. Neither missile has yet been cleared for HÜRJET, and no date has been given for when that integration work might start. MURAD itself is one of several radar families Türkiye now builds domestically; ASELSAN, Meteksan and HTR between them supply the sensors going onto everything from F-16s to naval combatants — see our guide to who builds Türkiye’s radars.
Why a Trainer’s Radar Matters
HÜRJET was designed from the outset to do double duty as an advanced jet trainer and a light attack aircraft, and Spain’s decision to buy the type gives the radar work commercial weight beyond Türkiye’s own air force. Madrid signed a roughly $3 billion contract in late 2025 for 30 HÜRJET aircraft, with HAVELSAN supplying the accompanying mission and flight training simulators and a production arrangement that has Spanish industry building part of its own fleet locally. Turkish deliveries are expected to begin in 2027 and Spanish deliveries in 2028, running out to the mid-2030s.
A radar-equipped, AESA-capable HÜRJET is a different sales proposition than a pure trainer: it opens the door to light fighter and lead-in fighter training roles that customers might otherwise fill with a more expensive aircraft, and it gives Turkish Aerospace a cheaper airframe on which to mature MURAD’s air-to-air software before the same radar family reaches KAAN in greater numbers. For NATO air forces weighing trainer replacements against tightening budgets, a jet that can plausibly stand in for light combat missions — even before missile integration is complete — changes the calculus around buying a trainer and a fighter separately.
Same Week, Same Test Team
The MURAD test came a day after Türkiye’s TAI Hürkuş-II turboprop trainer received the country’s first domestically issued military type certificate, and Görgün and Dalkıran flew both aircraft during the same visit — a scheduling choice that underlined how much of Türkiye’s pilot-training pipeline, from basic turboprop trainer through to a radar-equipped jet, is now being built and certified domestically rather than bought abroad. It is also the latest data point in Turkish Aerospace’s expanding role as the country’s prime airframe integrator across trainers, fighters and unmanned platforms alike.
Turkish Aerospace has not said when MURAD-equipped HÜRJET units will reach serial production configuration or whether Spain’s aircraft will carry the same radar fit as Türkiye’s own fleet.
Sources: SSB, Turkish Aerospace, Anadolu Agency, ShiftDelete.Net.
