KAAN is a 100% Indigeneous/Native/National Aircraft in terms of Aircraft Systems WBS Breakdown

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under the UN and the Industrial Property Law No. 6769, the MMU KAAN is 100% Indigenous and therefore a National aircraft. "Indigenous and National" is a well-thought-out noun phrase that reinforces the meaning; in fact, indigenous also means national.

Before going into the system engineering systematic WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) of the aircraft; it is useful to remember some international industrial concepts;

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer):

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer and applies to a company that designs and manufactures parts or products intended for inclusion in other companies' end products. Sometimes an OEM may produce the entire product sold under the other company's name.

TAI is the original designer and manufacturer of the MMU KAAN, which is the subject of this article. However, the KAAN, which is a "Main Product Tree", is a "system integration" made up of many sub-products. The designer and "integrator" of this system integration is TAI. 

In order for us to call a flying platform an "AIRCRAFT", it is "absolutely necessary" that the structural integrity of this aircraft is designed and manufactured by the aircraft designer, and that it can be moved in three axes, in other words, that it can fly. 

With its "first flight" on February 21, 2024, TAI's "main system" called KAAN, which is a flying main platform and aircraft systems integration, proved that it is a real aircraft, and that TAI is a real aircraft designer, aircraft structural construction expert and aircraft systems integrator.

Although this observation has been proven many times with ATAK, Hürkuş, Hürjet, ANKA, etc., since our subject is MMU KAAN, we will emphasize the issue in the specific case of MMU KAAN. 

NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering):

Non-recurring engineering activities, the intellectual value, importance and cost of these activities, and the "BRAIN ACTIVITIES" that go into researching, designing, developing and testing a new product or product development are referred to as NRE. It is this NRE, that is, intellectual work, that constitutes the largest part of the financial price we pay for technological products such as an airplane, ship, automobile, computer, etc.

COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf):

Commercially off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are off-the-shelf hardware or software that are tailored to the needs of the post-sale purchasing organization, rather than being specifically put into service.

COTS products can be used in both civil and military systems, subject to certain specifications, as long as they are not system-critical or mission-critical. Thousands of pieces of materials/items are used in aircraft within the hierarchy of main system, subsystem and sub-sub-system. Of these, those within the scope of cots not only reduce the integration costs of the system, but also accelerate the maintenance-repair process and reduce the costs in this process. 

For example, hydraulic suction disconnects or hydraulic transfer pipes, seals, etc. are not mission-critical, system-critical parts. If there is no problem with the design and functions of the aircraft system in question, there is no problem in using a hydraulic system part used in the Boeing 737 in the F-15. In this context, there are thousands of cots materials. In 2023, Chinese parts were found in F-35s, all of them were dismantled due to the conjunctive situation, and this dismantled part was a cots material.

Now we can explain WBS...

What is WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)?

Work breakdown structure (WBS) is the hierarchical breakdown of a project's "Intangible (Verbal, Numerical, Software, Visual, etc.) Inputs" and "Intangible (Assembly, Hardware, Object, Unit, Part, etc.) Inputs". In other words, WBS is a "System BOM". 

Those who work with American aircraft know this well, this situation is given in the T.O. (Technical Order) of aircraft systems with WUC (Work Unit Code) in a "Top Down Hierarchical categorization and all technical records on the aircraft are recorded through WUC. All analyses and syntheses are done with WUC algorithms. A similar situation exists on European aircraft. Probably Russian and Chinese aircraft have a similar methodology. 

The figure below shows a typical aircraft WBS hierarchical breakdown. 

Aircraft WBS Hierarchical Breakdown.

The important Level-I in Aircraft WBS is the "Aircraft System". The aircraft system is the aircraft itself and represents the aircraft's design, artistic, conceptual and detailed projects, drawings, blue prints and integrated WBS content and hierarchy. Everything below Level-I is covered by Level-II systems, including the basic system, the "Airframe/Structural" system. 

The levels can be further hierarchically broken down into parent, child, sub-sub-sub-systems. The WBS or BOM shows a breakdown from whole to detail / Top-Down.

The most detailed BOM representation will be the "Parts Breakdown / Illustrated Parts Catalog". Illustrated parts catalogs may consist of thousands of pages and hundreds of thousands of parts for a jet fighter aircraft.

For example, there are only 626,000 fasteners (screws, bolts, rivets, etc.) on the F-4E aircraft, and the total number of parts on the aircraft is in the millions. 

Each of the Level-II main systems may have separate OEMs, or one OEM may be responsible for several main systems, but the main system responsible for the structural systems, the company that holds the authority for the design and construction of the aircraft, which we can call the main OEM, is the aircraft design and manufacturing company. In the case of MMU KAAN, this company is TAI.

To the best of my knowledge, all of the other Level-II and Level-III systems, except for the engine and the chair, are Turkish OEMs. Among these, ASELSAN is the most prominent OEM company, responsible for the most systems. ASELSAN is the OEM of many very important and critical systems such as Radar, INS, Radio, Data Link, Bulwark Panel Indicators, Mission Computers, ECM/ECCM systems. In short, ASELSAN is the OEM of almost all of MMU KAAN's avionic systems.

The others are HAVELSAN, ROKETSAN, Alp Aviation, Altınay, ANDAR, ANOVA, Aspilsan, BOTEK, C2TECH, EMGE, KIM Technologies, KOLT, Masterdefence, Milpower Defense Systems, PAVELSIS, PAVOTEK, TAAC Aviation Technologies, Petlas, STG, STM, Udea, TÜBİTAK, VOLO, VOLT, UDEA, TRM TRMOTOR, TAAC, TASECS, etc.

All OEMs are responsible for their own systems to TAI, the prime contractor, and are subject to TAI's supervision.

TAI is also authorized to change sub-systems and their OEMs when deemed necessary and appropriate.

The owner of the MMU Project on behalf of the Turkish State/Government is the MoD/SSB.

Does the fact that the engines are not national mean that the KAAN is also not national? 

This issue is not even worth discussing, but since it is questioned a lot on social media, let's try to explain. Engines/engines are one of the level-II subsystems of an aircraft. The fact that the engines are of foreign origin does not mean that the aircraft is not national. 

For example, Sweden-SAAB's JAS-39 Gripen flies with the US General Electric's GEF414 engine, but no aviation authority in the world would say that the Gripen is not a Swedish aircraft. The Swedes would never say that.

Does the fact that TAI has purchased design services from other companies mean that MMU KAAN is not a national project?

Again, since it is often mentioned on social media that TAI once purchased design services from SAAB, it would be useful to explain. The scope of this service is not known to us, but the fact that TAI received design services from SAAB does not mean that the MMU KAAN cannot be a national project.

For example, the South Korean KAI worked with Lockheed Martin in the design of the T-50 Golden Eagle and the KF-21 Boramae, but both aircraft are national projects of South Korea.

Conclusion:

We wish that all main, sub-systems, sub-sub-sub-systems, assemblies, units and parts of these systems within the MMU KAAN's product tree had been designed and manufactured in Turkey. However, this is not technologically possible and economically feasible. 

The world is in a global industrial spiral. Some countries and their companies started designing and manufacturing certain systems and their sub-systems decades ago, made investments, established a market share for their products, continuously improved their knowledge and experience, and were able to sell more cost-effective products because they could produce them in large numbers and continuously improve these products.

Instead of not buying these products from these companies, investing in designing and producing them ourselves from scratch will lead to both a loss of time and economic loss.

No aircraft producing country or company in the world is engaged in such an endeavor.

For example, the F-16 aircraft has 36,000 inputs and parts, and 1/3 of these parts are sourced from abroad.

The Euro Fighter Typhoon has inputs from 400 main and main-subsystem OEMs. When we go into the details of these systems in terms of sub-sub-systems, assemblies, units and parts, we will see that thousands of companies have input in these products. 

Idealistic vision and a pragmatic implementation approach are essential. Being realistic will make systematic progress possible.

MMU KAAN successfully completed its most critical flight, its first flight, on February 21, 2024. We should be proud. The rest will come step by step. May our skies be open to MMU KAAN, may it make a great contribution to both the air power and the economic power of our country, and may the blue sky be entrusted to it.