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Turkey’s Hava SOJ Electronic Warfare Aircraft Seen in Clearest Visual Yet

FlyMarshall NewsroomBy No Comments6 Mins Read

New visuals of the Hava SOJ aircraft allow a closer look at the modifications to the Bombardier Global 6000 jet needed to house the EW payload, while also revealing other interesting features.

Exactly three months after Turkey’s first Hava SOJ airborne jammer broke cover in a grainy image while in flight at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) facility in Ankara, the aircraft has now appeared in its clearest official visual. A promotional video by the Ministry of National Defense (MND – Millî Savunma Bakanlığı) celebrating the 115th anniversary of the Turkish Air Force (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri – THK/TurAF) featured just a second-long clip of the aircraft in flight.

The external Electronic Warfare (EW) payloads and other features integrated onto the carrier Bombardier Global 6000 business jet are now clearly visible. Also called the ASOJ 23-A by some Turkish defense journalists and analysts, the aircraft makes the THK one of the few air forces in the Mediterranean and Levant region with such capability.

Another service within the broader geography which is set to acquire a similar capability is the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force). In fact, the service signed on around the same time last year to acquire two units of the EA-37B Compass Call, currently operated only by the U.S. Air Force.

Another European member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance with a similar capability is France. Its Archange Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) EW platform shares a similar radio, radar emission interception and jamming mission profile.

Deliveries of the four Global 6000-based Hava SOJ aircraft are expected to commence in 2026. At least two of the airframes were officially shown at TAI’s facility in 2019 prior to conversion.

New features seen on the Hava SOJ

TAI is responsible for modifying the airframe and integrating the EW payload made by defense electronics major Aselsan, followed by flight testing and the release of a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC), prior to induction with the THK. We do not know the exact technical designations of Aselsan’s EW payload developed for the Hava SOJ.

The company has a large portfolio of such hardware. Two popular ones are the ground-based KORAL system, and the ANTIDOT-family of ELINT/EW pods mounted on the AI-enabled version of the Bayraktar TB-2, the TB2T-AI.

The only known system the Hava SOJ aircraft are officially known to be carrying is Leonardo’s Miysis Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM), as per a November 2021 report by Savunmasanayist. The new image nevertheless shows the rest of its payloads in sharper detail.

The canoe-like fairing on the underside and the long dorsal dome-shaped antenna are more closely visible. The latter usually is related to beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) Satellite Communications (SATCOM).

The rear of the large ventral ‘canoe’ also has a small circular array of slanted blade antennas. These are usually related to encrypted, software-defined communications transceivers operating in various bands and frequencies, possibly allowing a Hava SOJ aircraft to also relay communications to friendly assets.

Another ventral oval-shaped fairing can be seen towards the rear, between the wing roots, beside a series of slanted antennas under the wings.

A feature that stands out are the wingtip-mounted pods, looking strikingly similar to the AN/ALQ-218 Tactical Jamming System on the U.S. Navy’s EA-18G Growler. On the Growler, these receive electronic emissions for the Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) mission, and send out transmissions for the Electronic Support Measures (ESM) function.

The trailing cable from the tip of the vertical stabilizer could either be a towed target/decoy for self-protection, or a trailing cone commonly used on many new aircraft when they are being tested and flight certified. The latter is commonly used to collect data from away from the disturbances of the airflow caused by the airframe.

The extended tail ‘sting’ boom below the rudder shows a collection of small oval sensors. Sensors placed at the rear of special mission aircraft usually are missile approach warning systems.

We do not know if the Hava SOJ also has an ISTAR (Intelligence Surveillance Targetting) role. If yes, the larger ventral canoe fairing could house an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) module, offering Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mapping or a Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) imaging.

The aircraft still has a flight data probe on the nose, and bears the tail registration TC-SJB, which could be a local serial post conversion. As we had originally reported, the two known Global 6000 airframes flown to TAI for conversion bore serial numbers 9855 and 9854, and the latter had the registration C-GBYG. Which of the two has been captured in the latest flight is not known.  

Importance for Turkey

Turkey’s Secretariat of Defence Industries (SSB) describes the Hava SOJ’s tactical role and the national effort to develop an indigenous capability in the strategically sensitive EW realm:

“Standoff Jamming (SOJ) platforms are high-value assets that suppress adversary air defence radars, disrupt command and control cycles, and interfere with communications by conducting deception and noise jamming from long ranges without entering hostile airspace. By doing so, they create corridors through which friendly air forces can penetrate enemy airspace. The effective employment of these platforms has become an undeniable reality of modern warfare, acting as a force multiplier and generating powerful asymmetric effects.”

The SSB will also oversee the handing over of the SOJ’s “associated facilities including hangars, squadron buildings, and a planning and training center” to the Turkish Air Force Command. The SOJ aircraft represent the national aspiration to “have radar and communications Electronic Support/Electronic Attack (ES/EA) systems integrated [and] indigenously acquired throughout domestic resources.”


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