The movements of two aircraft belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces on Friday morning appeared on publicly accessible flight-tracking platforms. ConflictTR said the data, based on ADS-B transponder signals transmitted by the aircraft, showed the ATR-72 maritime patrol aircraft with the TURNA01 call sign, operated by the Turkish Naval Forces Command, beginning its flight over the Mediterranean on the morning of November 6.
The first screenshot, shared at around 8:36 a.m., shows the aircraft circling for a while off the western coast of Antalya after taking off from Türkiye’s southwestern coast, before heading south over the open sea.
A second image shared more than an hour later, at around 9:43 a.m., showed that TURNA01 was still airborne. This time, the aircraft’s track extended southeast from off Antalya to the open sea southwest of the island of Cyprus.
The map shows the aircraft following a wide route from Türkiye’s coast, passing west of Cyprus and extending toward the island’s southwest. The Turkish Naval Forces Command and the Ministry of National Defence (MSB) did not issue a statement on the flight, and there is no official information about its mission.
P-72s introduced under the MELTEM-3 Project
The ATR-72-600 maritime patrol aircraft known as the P-72 in the Naval Forces inventory entered service under the MELTEM-3 Project. A contract signed between Italian Alenia Aermacchi, now Leonardo, and TUSAŞ in July 2012 provided for six ATR-72-600 aircraft to be converted to an anti-submarine warfare configuration. TUSAŞ, which carried out the modifications at its own facilities as the main subcontractor, undertook a broad range of work, from structural and electrical modifications to assembly, testing and integrated logistics support. The first P-72 under the project was delivered to the Naval Forces in December 2020.
According to TUSAŞ data, the aircraft can be used for maritime patrol, search and rescue, intelligence, electronic warfare and communications missions, as well as detecting submarines and surface targets and engaging them with torpedoes. Powered by two 2,750-horsepower engines made by Pratt & Whitney Canada, the P-72s have a maximum cruising speed of 510 kilometers per hour and a service ceiling of 25,000 feet. Along with the six P-235 (CN-235) aircraft added to the inventory through the MELTEM-1 and MELTEM-2 projects, the six P-72s under MELTEM-3 were intended to bring the Naval Forces’ maritime patrol aircraft fleet to 12 aircraft.
A400M flight from Kamra to Dhahran
Data shared at around 10:05 a.m. the same morning showed that an A400M military transport aircraft operated by the Turkish Air Force Command took off from Minhas Air Base in Pakistan and landed at King Abdulaziz Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The aircraft appeared under the TUAF544 call sign in the flight-tracking screenshot.
The image shows the aircraft taking off from Kamra (ATG), crossing Pakistan southwestward, entering the Arabian Peninsula via the Arabian Sea and Oman, and reaching Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coast.
Minhas Air Base, operated by the Pakistan Air Force, is located in Kamra in Attock district of Punjab province, northwest of Islamabad; this is why it appears as Kamra on flight-tracking platforms. The base is home to the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), where JF-17 Thunder fighter jets are also produced. King Abdulaziz Air Base is located in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and is one of the main bases of the Royal Saudi Air Force.
Türkiye completed its fleet by taking delivery of the 10th and final A400M Atlas aircraft developed by Airbus in March 2022, becoming the first country among the program’s participating nations to do so. The aircraft are stationed at the 12th Main Air Transport Base Command in Kayseri. Under the program, TUSAŞ produces the center fuselage, the upper section of the rear fuselage and the tail cone, as well as flight-control surfaces such as ailerons and spoilers, while TEI is among the subcontractors for the TP400 engine.
Purpose of flights not disclosed
The Ministry of National Defence and the service commands did not issue any statement on the purpose of the two flights. Military cooperation between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan has been high on the agenda in recent weeks. On November 5, the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye approved, by 279 votes to 119, a bill approving the ratification of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between the three countries. Under the agreement signed in Mecca on August 7, an external armed attack against one party is considered an attack against all parties. There is no official information linking the A400M’s flight to the agreement.
Images: ConflictTR / X (flight-tracking screenshots and aircraft photos)
