New visuals of the Hava SOJ plane enable a better take a look at the modifications to the Bombardier World 6000 jet wanted to deal with the EW payload, whereas additionally revealing different attention-grabbing options.
Precisely three months after Turkey’s first Hava SOJ airborne jammer broke cowl in a grainy picture whereas in flight on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) facility in Ankara, the plane has now appeared in its clearest official visible. A promotional video by the Ministry of Nationwide Protection (MND – Millî Savunma Bakanlığı) celebrating the one hundred and fifteenth anniversary of the Turkish Air Pressure (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri – THK/TurAF) featured only a second-long clip of the plane in flight.
The exterior Digital Warfare (EW) payloads and different options built-in onto the service Bombardier World 6000 enterprise jet at the moment are clearly seen. Additionally referred to as the ASOJ 23-A by some Turkish protection journalists and analysts, the plane makes the THK one of many few air forces within the Mediterranean and Levant area with such functionality.
One other service inside the broader geography which is about to accumulate an identical functionality is the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Pressure). In reality, the service signed on across the identical time final 12 months to accumulate two items of the EA-37B Compass Name, at the moment operated solely by the U.S. Air Pressure.
Gökyüzünde elektronik hâkimiyetin anahtarı HAVA SOJ 🇹🇷
2018 yılında başlatılan HAVA SOJ Projesi kapsamında Türk Hava Kuvvetleri için 4 adet elektronik harp özel görev uçağı geliştiriliyor.
Düşman radar ve haberleşme sistemlerini tespit, teşhis, karıştırma ve aldatma… pic.twitter.com/w2QH7T4ukO
— Sanayi ve Savunma 🇹🇷 (@SanayiSavunmaTR) June 1, 2026
One other European member of the North Atlantic Treaty Group (NATO) alliance with an identical functionality is France. Its Archange Indicators Intelligence (SIGINT) EW platform shares an identical radio, radar emission interception and jamming mission profile.
Deliveries of the 4 World 6000-based Hava SOJ plane are anticipated to start in 2026. At the least two of the airframes have been formally proven at TAI’s facility in 2019 previous to conversion.
New options seen on the Hava SOJ
TAI is accountable for modifying the airframe and integrating the EW payload made by protection electronics main Aselsan, adopted by flight testing and the discharge of a Supplemental Kind Certificates (STC), previous to induction with the THK. We have no idea the precise technical designations of Aselsan’s EW payload developed for the Hava SOJ.
The corporate has a big portfolio of such {hardware}. Two widespread ones are the ground-based KORAL system, and the ANTIDOT-family of ELINT/EW pods mounted on the AI-enabled model of the Bayraktar TB-2, the TB2T-AI.
Concurrently performed land and air platform primarily based radar and jammer tasks
➡️Air SOJ➡️MIT Intelligence Plane➡️IHA-SOJ (ASOJ-234U)➡️Kara-SOJ 1 (Koral-1)➡️Kara-SOJ 2 (Koral-2)➡️AEW-C (ALP-200A)➡️IHA AEW-C (Baykar-S band early warning radar) pic.twitter.com/rv1sqF5Lt6
— TR_tech (@T_Nblty) March 1, 2026
The one recognized system the Hava SOJ plane are formally recognized to be carrying is Leonardo’s Miysis Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM), as per a November 2021 report by Savunmasanayist. The brand new picture nonetheless exhibits the remainder of its payloads in sharper element.
The canoe-like fairing on the underside and the lengthy dorsal dome-shaped antenna are extra carefully seen. The latter normally is said to past line-of-sight (BLOS) Satellite tv for pc Communications (SATCOM).
The rear of the big ventral ‘canoe’ additionally has a small round array of slanted blade antennas. These are normally associated to encrypted, software-defined communications transceivers working in varied bands and frequencies, presumably permitting a Hava SOJ plane to additionally relay communications to pleasant property.
One other ventral oval-shaped fairing may be seen in the direction of the rear, between the wing roots, beside a collection of slanted antennas beneath the wings.
A function that stands out are the wingtip-mounted pods, wanting strikingly just like the AN/ALQ-218 Tactical Jamming System on the U.S. Navy’s EA-18G Growler. On the Growler, these obtain digital emissions for the Digital Intelligence (ELINT) mission, and ship out transmissions for the Digital Help Measures (ESM) perform.
Dünya’da sadece birkaç ülke tarafından yürütülebilen HAVA SOJ projesi
Türkiye,2026 yılında HAVA-SOJ ile elektronik harp filosuna sahip olacak.
Türkiye’nin Elektronik Harp kabiliyeti:
▪️Uzaktan karıştırma kabiliyetine sahip Hava SOJ▪️Refakatte karıştırma kabiliyetine sahip… pic.twitter.com/LiZgKf60hh
— Oğuzhan Uygun (@ogzhn_uyg) February 20, 2026
The trailing cable from the tip of the vertical stabilizer may both be a towed goal/decoy for self-protection, or a trailing cone generally used on many new plane when they’re being examined and flight licensed. The latter is often used to gather knowledge from away from the disturbances of the airflow brought on by the airframe.
The prolonged tail ‘sting’ increase under the rudder exhibits a set of small oval sensors. Sensors positioned on the rear of particular mission plane normally are missile strategy warning techniques.
We have no idea if the Hava SOJ additionally has an ISTAR (Intelligence Surveillance Targetting) position. If sure, the bigger ventral canoe fairing may home an Lively Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) module, providing Artificial Aperture Radar (SAR) mapping or a Floor Shifting Goal Indicator (GMTI) imaging.
The plane nonetheless has a flight knowledge probe on the nostril, and bears the tail registration TC-SJB, which may very well be an area serial publish conversion. As we had initially reported, the 2 recognized World 6000 airframes flown to TAI for conversion bore serial numbers 9855 and 9854, and the latter had the registration C-GBYG. Which of the 2 has been captured within the newest flight shouldn’t be recognized.
The HAVA SOJ, which might be one of many Turkish Air Pressure’s most strategic plane, has not but been proven to the media by officers, however they’re flying. Will we lastly get a glimpse of this beast? We’re ready… pic.twitter.com/0op79IZqoj
— TR_tech (@T_Nblty) November 27, 2025
Significance for Turkey
Turkey’s Secretariat of Defence Industries (SSB) describes the Hava SOJ’s tactical position and the nationwide effort to develop an indigenous functionality within the strategically delicate EW realm:
“Standoff Jamming (SOJ) platforms are high-value property that suppress adversary air defence radars, disrupt command and management cycles, and intrude with communications by conducting deception and noise jamming from lengthy ranges with out coming into hostile airspace. By doing so, they create corridors by way of which pleasant air forces can penetrate enemy airspace. The efficient employment of those platforms has develop into an plain actuality of recent warfare, performing as a pressure multiplier and producing highly effective uneven results.”
The SSB may also oversee the handing over of the SOJ’s “related services together with hangars, squadron buildings, and a planning and coaching middle” to the Turkish Air Pressure Command. The SOJ plane signify the nationwide aspiration to “have radar and communications Digital Help/Digital Assault (ES/EA) techniques built-in [and] indigenously acquired all through home sources.”
