Turkish defense firm to test sea -based drones as orders grow

The Turkish defense company whose armed drones will be decisive in the conflicts in Azerbaijan and Libya will soon test-fly two new unmanned aircraft that will expand Turkey’s drone capabilities from land-based to naval operations, said its CEO on Wednesday.

Haluk Bayraktar, one of two engineer brothers who run defense firm Baykar, said the new aircraft will be tested over the next two years and will depart from a Turkish navy ship currently under production.

Turkey’s deployment of the company’s Bayraktar TB2 drone was a major factor in the conflict in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Azerbaijan, which pushed Baykar into the spotlight and made it a major manufacturer and exporter.

The company has now signed export agreements with 13 countries including a joint production agreement with Ukraine, as its products are helping to reshape the way of fighting modern wars, Bayraktar said.

The size of Turkey’s drone program places it in the top four producers in the world along with the United States, Israel and China, analysts said.

“The smart, unmanned aerial systems are the two leading technologies that have changed the landscape for power projection,” he told Reuters on the sideline of the defense show in Istanbul.

“While everyone is talking about how drone technology is changing the doctrines of combat … one of our next goals is the TB3 drone, capable of flying to and from TCG Anadolu,” Bayraktar said. , which refers to a planned Turkish light aircraft carrier.

Although the ship can carry combat helicopters on its landing deck, Turkey does not operate an aircraft that can fly from the ship. The TB3, with its folding-wing design, can deploy from short naval runways.

In some sections under production, the first test flight is expected to be seen next year, Bayraktar said.

It will be followed by an unmanned combat aircraft, called the MUIS, with the first prototype flight expected in 2023, he said. Currently in the design stage, the MUIS is jet-powered, with a payload of up to 1.5 tons.

The autonomously maneuvering craft is capable of operating in conjunction with piloted aircraft, and can carry air-to-air missiles, the company said.

Baykar, founded in the 1980s by Bayraktar’s father, began to focus on the production of unmanned aircraft in 2005 as Turkey sought to boost its local defense industry.

Today it is at the forefront of Turkey’s global export defense push. President Tayyip Erdogan, whose daughter is married to Baykar chief technology officer Selcuk Bayraktar, said the international demand for TB2 and the newer Akinci drone is huge.

“Everywhere, even on my trip to Africa, they want drones, armed drones and Akinci,” he told workers in Baykar last month after returning from a trip to Angola, Togo and Nigeria. “The whole world… wants to see and know what you’re doing.”

The first Akinci drone, which has a longer flight time and can carry a larger payload than the TB2, was delivered to the Turkish military in August.

Despite growing demand, the use of Turkish-made drones eastern Ukraine against Russian-backed militia has been criticized by the Kremlin. Planned sales to Ethiopia, plunged into civil war and conflict with Egypt, sparked conflict in Cairo.

Bayraktar said Turkey has made a “huge leap” in its efforts to create its own defense industry over the past 20 years, which has expanded from 17 companies to nearly 17,000. [Reuters]

“Drone technology is just one success story born from national and indigenous development progress,” he said. “We started reaping the benefits of work that started two decades ago recently.”