Turkish Air Force Research Articles

Relationships among barodontalgia prevalence, altitude, stress, dental care frequency, and barodontalgia awareness: a survey of Turkish pilots

Background Gas expansion in body cavities due to pressure changes at high altitudes can cause barodontalgia. This condition may compromise flight safety. Aim To investigate relationships among barodontalgia awareness, dental visit frequency, and barodontalgia prevalence in civilian and military pilots operating at high altitudes. Materials and Methods Civilian pilots from Turkish Airlines and military pilots from the Turkish Air Force, flying between November 2022 and January 2023, participated in this study. A 20-question survey was administered to 750 pilots, covering topics such as barodontalgia awareness, dental visit frequency, breaks after dental treatments, in-flight pain, and pain type and severity. The voluntary surveys were distributed by email. Results Of the 750 pilots, 526 completed the survey; 61% were aware of barodontalgia, and 81% of pilots who had experienced it reported pain at altitudes <2000 feet. The study revealed higher barodontalgia awareness among pilots who had experienced it, with the highest prevalence among jet pilots. Pilots with barodontalgia also showed a higher frequency of dental visits (p < 0.001). Additionally, this group reported more frequent interruption of flight due to dental treatment (IFDT), more problems experienced in flights after treatment (PFAT), and higher instances of bruxism or teeth clenching during flight, suggesting stress and anxiety (p < 0.05). Conclusions Barodontalgia, a type of pain linked to stress, significantly impacts pilot performance, and can threaten flight safety, even at lower altitudes. Thus, there is a need to educate pilots about stress management, barodontalgia awareness, and the importance of regular dental check-ups.

Identifying, Measuring, And Monitoring Material Management Key Performance Indicators in Military: Case Study of Turkish Air Force Logistics KPI Identification Using a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model

Identifying, Measuring, And Monitoring Material Management Key Performance Indicators in Military: Case Study of Turkish Air Force Logistics KPI Identification Using a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model

Erdogan against Turkey։ Stalemate of “Patriot-F-35-S-400” triangle

After the attempted military coup in 2016, Turkey began to show interest in the Russian S-400 systems, and initially there was an impression that Turkey was only bluffing, was simply using Russia in its relations with the United States (as it had previously done with China (CPMIEC) in the same matter) and was seeking to show the US that it had an alternative (S-400). However, Turkey showed its persistence, and was able to buy these systems quite quickly, despite the fact that the United States strongly opposed it. In this context, this study aims to clarify the main reasons for Turkey's persistence on this issue, taking into account the personal factor of Erdogan. The article also analyzes the authoritarian strengthening of militarism and Erdogan’s personal factor for buying the S-400, who was the beneficiary of buying the S-400 systems. This article shows that sometimes Erdogan’s personal interests and Turkey’s state interests should be separated from each other, that in some cases Erdogan’s personal interests and Turkey’s state interests may or may not coincide partially or completely․ It is emphasized that in each case of conflict of interests, Erdogan’s personal interests prevail, that the problems should be examined first of all from the perspective of Erdogan’s personal interests and not from Turkey’s state interests, otherwise many things remain unclear and unexplained. Focusing on Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 systems, this study also asks why NATO member Turkey even after the purchase has not given up those Russian systems and why it still continues to persist․ The topic is also actual for Armenia, as it is related to the sphere of the Turkish Air Force and the defense capability of Turkey in general, its prospects. The article describes the brief history of Turkey’s purchase of S-400 systems, analyzes the motives of that move from territorial, temporal, cause-and-effect, and other perspectives, and presents Turkey’s attempts to get out of the existing situation. This study aims to identify the main trends underlying the conflict between Erdogan and the Turkish political elite over the purchase of the S-400.

First Black Military Pilot of the World: Ottoman Lieutenant Ahmet Ali Bey 1883 – 1969

A forgotten prominent figure, Ahmet Ali Çelikten was the first black military pilot in world history. Of Nigerian origin, Ahmet Ali grew up in the Ottoman society and had the opportunity like any Ottoman Turkish citizen to study in the Ottoman naval force in 1903. He fought in the Italian-Turkish war with his South African coreligionists in Libya in 1911 and later against the allies in WW1 as the first black military pilot in the World. The Ottoman Empire was the last Islamic and multi-cultural empire in world history. Skin colour did not affect individuals' social standing or opportunities in the Ottoman society. The Ottoman Empire managed to rule several nations, even those with religious minorities and provide them equal rights. This article aims to highlight the events and experiences in the life of Pilot Ahmet Ali in the Ottoman territory. To achive this, Ottoman archival sources and otantique Turkish journals were used during the research. In addition, comparative method was used throughout the study by looking at the social life in the Ottoman Empire and in the Western world in the light of archival documents. In conclusion, this understanding and living conditions enabled Ahmet Ali to be the first black pilot in the world history. At a difficult time in the history of the Ottoman Empire, during the genesis of modern Turkey, Ahmet Ali Bey had sincerely contributed to establishment of a Turkish air force in the Republic of Turkey.

The Future of Turkey’s Airpower: The Fifth Generation Challenge

Rapid advances in technology enable incremental developments in the aerospace and defense sector, the most well-known example of which is the evolution of air power. Since the end of the Second World War, the aerospace industry has been constantly developing and providing more capabilities to air forces around the world. These developments can be grouped under ‘generations’ and today, the latest iteration is the fifth generation. Fifth-generation combat aircraft or, in more general terms, fifth-generation air power is the product of various technological elements and innovations. To fully exploit these developments, air forces need to have interdisciplinary vision and the capability to absorb, deploy and develop skills ranging from requirement definition to program management. This study aims to provide an understanding on the features of the next generation of air warfare, while presenting the status of the Turkish Air Force and offering suggestions on several challenges and opportunities.

Suriye Sahnesinde Etkin Rus ve Türk Dış Politikası

Russia and Turkey have been involved in remarkable redefinitions of their foreign policies while navigating through turbulent times in the Post-Cold War era. This has manifested in a search of being recognized as a great power. The tragic civil war in Syria has been the theatre of these ambitions of these two states in highly controversial ways. They have been on the opposite sides until recently on the essential question of the regime change in that country. The risk of a direct fight has even been observed when Turkish air force got a Russian jet down. However, a rapid rapprochement started due to Turkish priority shift from the regime change to the prevention of Kurdish autonomy and the alienation from US; and Russian enthusiasm to get the cooperation of an ardent anti-regime NATO member like Turkey. It can be said that Russia and Turkey have been more process-oriented than result-oriented because they have been compelled to see the limits of their power and influence. As a result, they seem to prefer to focus on the process since they seem to reach their primary objective of showing their salience. All in all, one can only hope for a peaceful and democratic life for Syrians whom tremendously suffered also as a result of an imbroglio of all these global and regional powers’ policies.

TÜRKİYE İLE RUSYA ARASINDA YAŞANAN UÇAK KRİZİ TÜRKİYE’NİN DOĞALGAZ TEDARİĞİNİ ORTA VE UZUN VADEDE NASIL ETKİLER?

Özet Soğuk Savaş döneminin çift kutuplu dünyasında karşıt bloklarda yer alan Türkiye ve Rusya, dönemin şartları gereği birbirlerine rakip oldukları için gergin ve mesafeli bir ilişki benimsemişlerdir. İlişkilerin her açıdan minimum düzeyde olduğu bu dönemde, Batı ittifakının içinde yer alan Türkiye için Rusya, ‘komünizm tehdidi’ olarak algılanırken Rusya içinse Türkiye ‘emperyalist Batı ittifakının bir üyesi’ olarak görülüyordu. Ancak, Soğuk Savaşın sona ermesiyle oluşan yeni ve dinamik uluslararası ilişkiler sürecinde iki ülke arasındaki ilişkiler başta enerji olmak üzere birçok alanda hızla gelişmeye başlamıştır. Artık Rusya, Türkiye için komünizm ihraç eden bir ülke olmaktan ziyade Türkiye’nin en büyük doğalgaz tedarikçisi durumuna ulaşmıştır. İki ülke arasında 80’li yılların sonunda başlayan gaz alışverişi, 2000’li yıllar boyunca gelişen siyasi ve diplomatik ilişkiler sayesinde zirveye ulaşmıştır. Fakat 2015 yılı Kasım ayında Türkiye – Suriye sınırında bir Rus savaş uçağının sınır ihlali gerekçesiyle Türk Hava Kuvvetleri tarafından düşürülmesi, ikili ilişkileri bıçak gibi kesmiştir. Bir dost ülke tarafından sırtından bıçaklanmış hisseden Rusya, Türkiye’ye başta turizm ve ticaret olmak üzere pek çok alanda yaptırım uygulamaya başlamıştır. Doğalgaz konusunda büyük ölçüde Rusya’ya bağımlı olan Türkiye’de kamuoyunda ‘Acaba Rusya doğalgazı da keser mi?’ diye sorular sorulmaya başlanmıştır. Bu çalışmada, Türkiye ile Rusya arasında yaşanan uçak krizi bağlamında Türkiye’nin doğalgaz tedariği durumu ve arz çeşitliliğine yönelik politikalar değerlendirilip geleceğe dönük perspektifler sunulmaktadır. Abstract Turkey and Russia, which were once located in the opposing blocks of the bipolar world of the Cold War era, adopted a tense and distant relationship because of the rivalrous conditions of the time. In this period, when the relations were at minimum level in all respects, while Russia was perceived as a 'communist threat' for Turkey, which was already part of the Western alliance, Turkey was seen as a 'member of the imperialist Western alliance' by Russia. However, with the end of the Cold War, the relations between the two countries, especially regarding energy, began to develop rapidly in the framework of a new and dynamic international environment. Today, Russia, far from being a communism exporting country for Turkey, has become the biggest natural gas supplier of Turkey. The gas exchange between the two countries, which started at the end of the 80s, reached its peak thanks to the political and diplomatic relations that developed during the 2000s. But in November 2015, the Turkish Air Force dropped a Russian warcraft on the border between Turkey and Syria on the grounds of border violation, cutting the bilateral relations like a knife. Having felt stabbed in the back by a friendly country, Russia has begun to impose many sanctions on Turkey, mainly tourism and trade. Turkey, which is largely dependent on Russia for natural gas, have begun to ask questions such as 'Will Russia also cut the natural gas?' In this study, Turkey's natural gas supply situation and supply diversity policies are assessed and future perspectives are presented in the context of the aircraft crisis between Turkey and Russia.

A snapshot of the blackbox: a 2015 survey of the Turkish officer corps

ABSTRACTThis paper aims at opening the blackbox of the Turkish military by presenting the findings of a survey conducted among 1401 officers in May–August 2015. The findings, which could be defined as the snapshot of the Turkish military’s officer corps views, show that, as the ranks decrease, there are some major trends influencing the officer corps. These include heterogenization and diversification of opinions from collectivist to an individualist understanding of life, from an elitist to an egalitarian view of society, and change from value-centric service to a focus on financial goals and career opportunities. The findings also indicate that the Turkish Army, Air Force and Navy’s organizational cultures are dissimilar regarding their stance towards military transformation, organizational restructuring and some socio-political issues such as the extent of secularist sentiment, religiosity and political orientations.

Mitigating the impact of false alarms and no fault found events in military systems

False Alarms (FAs) and No Fault Founds (NFFs) impose a devastating impact on aircraft systems. An entire aircraft can be grounded because of a single avionic for which there are insufficient spares available. If an FA or NFF causes a particular Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) to be called out incorrectly, that same LRU could be called out in many aircraft, possibly shutting down the entire fleet. We will mention results of the studies in the literature addressing the various aspects and impacts of the FA and NFF phenomena. There are multiple and complex causes for FAs and NFFs and it is beyond the scope of technicians to come up with mitigating solutions. Military systems are experiencing these NFF phenomena as well. In this paper, we explore the NFFs experienced by Turkish Air Force (TurAF) F-16 avionics, which are causing problems for maintenance and increase operational costs and aircraft downtimes. As is the case with many avionics repair facilities, whether military or civilian, the NFF issue requires closer scrutiny for the root-causes and evaluation of its impact on cost and aircraft operational time. We will discuss the impact of FAs and NFFs on TurAF F-16 avionics maintenance activities and evaluate measures that could or should be taken to improve the effectiveness of maintenance personnel in light of these complex events. We will conclude with recommendations that could assist in mitigating FAs and NFFs in military systems.

The Sukhoi Su-24 Incident between Russia and Turkey

This note presents an analysis from the viewpoint of public international law of the event that occurred on November 24, 2015, when a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber jet was downed by the Turkish Air Force over the border region between Syria and Turkey. While some of the basic circumstances of the case remain controversial, enough elements have emerged from media coverage to permit for the identification of the main legal issues, if not also to assess the legality of the Russian behavior and of the Turkish reaction in all its details. The known facts warrant the conclusion that the attack and the downing of the Russian jet can be seen as a disproportionate reaction on the part of the Turkish Government and, therefore, as a violation of the prohibition of the use of military force under Art. 2(4) of the UN Charter and under the corresponding customary rule of international law.

Downing of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 by Turkey: A Legal Analysis

The paper presents a concise analysis of some of the international legal issues arising from the downing of a Russian aircraft by the Turkish Air Force occured near the the Turkish-Syrian border on 24 November 2015.

Program allocation process improvement by an assignment model

AbstractAs the only source of jet pilot candidates for Turkish Air Force, Air Force Academy (TuAFA) applies several screening processes in order to acquire an average group of 150 cadets from civilian high school graduates each year. Besides the nationwide examinations (YGS-LYS), there are several others such as medical, flight, athletics evaluations and etc. Because the number of criteria for screening is large, the spread of the distribution of YGS-LYS scores of the candidates, which is assumed to be the aptitude towards college education, is a lot wider than those of other universities. Although admission to faculty for civilian high school students is regulated by the YGS-LYS score; in order to provide a balance distribution among different programs in terms of YGS-LYS score, placement to aerospace, electronics, computer and Industrial engineering programs of the Faculty is governed by a special directive. Although the directive considers candidates’ preferences, the ultimate goal of the algorithm in the directive is to keep the balance of academic success among different programs in the allocation process. In this study, we propose an alternative assignment model which tries to minimize the deviations from students’ preferences while maintaining the balance of the distribution among programs. Through simulation from different preference distributions with different number of students, it has been showed that regardless of the number of students and distribution of preferences,first choice allocation performance of the proposed model is significantly better than the directive’s algorithm.

A study of the active controlled useful load parachute systems in terms of subsystem design, test and methods

Abstract Taking into account the geograhy and the geostrategic location of Turkey, it has become a necessity to perform tasks which are time sensitive such as natural disaster, search and rescue and airlift of ammunition and supplies to operation zones by using unmanned parachute systems. Turkish Air Force (TURAF) Headquarters, in response to this necessity, has claimed its place in the race of possesing new generation unmanned systems and devices which are suitable for developing technology and other improvements of the era in the fields of aviation and space sciences. Within this scope, TURAF closely follows the active controlled useful load-carrying system technology which can be operated in two different options, remote controlled and autonomous, and aims to possess this technology by producing it using local means and sources. Across the World, the system actively used for this purpose are known as Guided Precision Aerial Delivery Systems (GPADS). GPADS technology, which has not been used in Turkey yet, has been studied in detail with this thesis. In this context, a description of the concepts regarding the system TURAF needs has been made, and the technical specifications that the system on draft requires have been put forward. At the end of the study, it has been concluded that the system can be produced domestically with the cooparation of institutions and organizations in Turkey, and that the ram air canopy which produces the best flight performance results should be used during the design phase provided that the compulsory military standarts are met.

The optimal exam experience: a timetabling approach to prevent student cheating and fatigue

University exam planning is a notoriously difficult endeavour that involves satisfying numerous classroom capacity and conflict-prevention constraints. Accordingly, exam timetabling has received much attention in the literature over the years. Despite research advances, student cheating and fatigue continue to persist and are typically addressed separately from timetabling considerations. In this paper, we show how both problems can be addressed effectively by incorporating such considerations into the timetabling. We address a real problem occurring at the Turkish Air Force Academy (TUAFA) and develop two versions of an integer programming model. The first finds a feasible timetable while respecting cheating and fatigue-prevention constraints. The second maximises classroom utilisation, decreasing both the number of classrooms and proctors required. Computational experiments using TUAFA data show that both models are tractable in practice and that by incorporating the objective function, classroom utilisation can be increased by 55% leading to a 43% reduction in required classrooms.

Turkey's Involvement in the F-35 Program

Turkey has been involved in the international consortium that builds the F-35 J°int Strike Fighter (JSF) since 1999. The relationship between Turkey and the consortium may appear to be rocky, however, because of Turkey's many hesitations to commit to the JSF program. In this article we argue that these hesitations are strategic, designed to extract maximum benefits for Turkey's defence industry from the consortium manufacturing the fighter jets. For in addition to wanting to buy these fighter jets, Turkey seeks to maximize the amount of local work-share to secure access to the software of the aircraft, and to accumulate enough experience that will eventually lead to designing and manufacturing a combat aircraft. Currently, Turkey's arms and aviation exports total US$i billion, and locallymanufactured items account for more than 50 percent of Turkish defence procurement. Consequently, the professed aim of building an indigenous combat aircraft can be taken as a manifestation of the pursuit of a greater share of, and a greater say in, the global arms trade.This article unfolds in three sections. In the first section, we give a brief history of military aviation in Turkey, including Turkey's efforts to develop an indigenous aircraft industry; in order to understand Turkey's involvement in the F-35 program, it is crucial to understand Turkey's desire to build a fully indigenous combat aircraft. Second, we give a timeline of Turkey's inclusion in the F-35 program and discuss the motives and goals behind Turkey's involvement in the JSF. Finally, we address the ebbs and flows in the Turkish approach to the entire JSF program in parallel to the rapidly changing international context, the cost overruns, and the extent of work-share secured for Turkish industries.MILITARY AVIATION AND AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY IN TURKEYIn May 2011 the Turkish Air Force (TuAF) officially celebrated its centennial. In 1911 the ailing Ottoman Empire created an experimental aviation unit. In its infancy, the Ottoman (and then the Turkish) air force saw action in a number of major conflicts that came in quick succession from the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913, to the First World War, to the Turkish War of Liberation in I9I9'I922- Once modem Turkey was established in 1923, submarines and aircraft became the weapons of choice for the defence of the new Turkish state. Yet aircraft had one distinct advantage over submarines-popular appeal. Hence aircraft and aviators quickly turned into symbols of progress and power in Turkey. Between 1925 and 1935, ordinary Turkish people paid for about 250 military aircraft through subscriptions raised by a nationwide fundraising drive organized by the Turkish Aircraft Association (later, the Turkish Air League, or THK), creating a strong and resilient bond between the people and aircraft in Turkey.The Versailles limitations on German arms production provided Turkey with an opportunity to have an early start in aircraft production. Seeking a way around the restrictions, the German aircraft manufacturer Junkers set up an assembly line for its A-20 military and F-13 civilian aircraft in the Central Anatolian city of Kayseri in 1925. Although this first attempt ended in failure, the Kayseri Plant was used in assembling aircraft purchased from the United States, Germany, Poland, and Britain in the 1930s. Meanwhile, several individuals had started their own businesses to design and build aircraft in Turkey. Among them, the best known were Vecihi Hurkuc, a veteran fighter pilot noted for his boldness, and Nuri Demirag, an entrepreneur and aviation enthusiast. Such private ventures bore only modest results. Nevertheless, Hurkuc in particular left a lasting mark on Turkish aviation as the builder of the first ever Turkish aircraft.1In the interwar era, Turkey followed a policy of avoiding dependence of all sorts. The Turkish government took great strides in diversifying its arms suppliers. Britain, Germany, and the US supplied bombers and trainers, while the fighters were bought from Poland. …

Epistemic Uncertainty Analysis: An Approach Using Expert Judgment and Evidential Credibility

When dealing with complex systems, all decision making occurs under some level of uncertainty. This is due to the physical attributes of the system being analyzed, the environment in which the system operates, and the individuals which operate the system. Techniques for decision making that rely on traditional probability theory have been extensively pursued to incorporate these inherent aleatory uncertainties. However, complex problems also typically include epistemic uncertainties that result from lack of knowledge. These problems are fundamentally different and cannot be addressed in the same fashion. In these instances, decision makers typically use subject matter expert judgment to assist in the analysis of uncertainty. The difficulty with expert analysis, however, is in assessing the accuracy of the expert's input. The credibility of different information can vary widely depending on the expert’s familiarity with the subject matter and their intentional (i.e., a preference for one alternative over another) and unintentional biases (heuristics, anchoring, etc.). This paper proposes the metric of evidential credibility to deal with this issue. The proposed approach is ultimately demonstrated on an example problem concerned with the estimation of aircraft maintenance times for the Turkish Air Force.

Special Issue: USMOS Conference: Recent Research on Defence M&S in Turkey

As the importance and thus the demand for Modeling and Simulation (MS and with the cooperation of the Defence Sciences Institute of the Military Academy, the Naval Science and Engineering Institute of the Naval Academy, and the Aeronautics and Space Technologies Institute of the Air Force Academy. The basic and applied research on M&S that is performed by the Turkish Air Force, academia, civilian and military and research agencies has created a proper environment to disseminate the results of the technology and the system development projects in Turkey. This special issue contains five of the best papers from this USMOS Conference:

About the Authors

About the Authors

Avionics system design of a mini VTOL UAV

Herein, the avionics system design of a mini Vertical Take-Off And Landing (VTOL) capable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), namely a Quadrotor, will be described. The Turkish Air Force Academy personnel together with a team of cadets have been working on the design and development of an autonomous Quadrotor vehicle for educational purposes. The main emphasis was to study the flight dynamics of such a vehicle but the development of on-board electronics that consists of a sensor payload, embedded computer, and other hardware, along with the embedded software was such a critical work package under the project that required special emphasis and an innovative approach. A new avionic architecture that is derived from the rationale of Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture of today's larger platforms is proposed and currently being implemented within the framework of our project. The advantages of this approach for the development of mini/micro UAVs along with the academic education of our cadets will be discussed.

Application of Dempster-Shafer Theory in Aircraft Maintenance Time Assessment: A Case Study

:The goal of this case study is to demonstrate the use of the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidence as a decision aid to predict aircraft maintenance times during Turkish Air Force wartime tactical operations. A questionnaire was administered to aircraft maintenance experts to investigate maintenance times of major aircraft failure modes (ignition, fuel, and electrical). An example examining jet engine aircraft failure is presented to demonstrate use of the developed approach. The results of this methodology provide a useful and specific application area for the Dempster-Shafer Theory to aid a decision maker in making wartime tactical decisions.