The Turkish Bairaktar TB2 drones in Ukraine, where they have destroyed Russian artillery systems, armor, anti-aircraft weapons, etc., have “made the whole world their customer”, said their manufacturer.
Seljuk Bairaktar, head – along with his brother Haluk – of the construction company Baykar in Istanbul, told Reuters that the drones showed how technology had revolutionized modern warfare.
“The Bayraktar TB2 is doing what it was designed to do, destroying some of the most advanced anti-aircraft systems, advanced artillery systems and armored vehicles. The whole world is now a customer,” he said during an exhibition in Baku, Azerbaijan, where his company introduced the new Akinci drone.
The TB2, which has a wingspan of 12 meters and can fly at an altitude of 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers), before then “diving” to destroy its target with laser-guided bombs, has helped the Ukrainian army to strike in Russian. It has become very popular in Ukraine, where the relevant patriotic song “Bairaktar, Bairaktar” has been written.
Founded in the 1980s by Seljuk’s father, Ozdemir Bayraktar, Baykar has focused on drones since 2005 as part of its policy of strengthening Turkey’s domestic defense industry. The TB2 drone’s contribution to many conflicts (Syria, Iraq, Libya, Armenia-Azerbaijan for Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine-Russia) has made TB2 a popular export product. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that there is a huge international demand for both TB2 and the newer Akinci drone.
Selcuk Bayraktar, a graduate of Istanbul University and MIT who has married Erdogan’s daughter, said his company can produce up to 200 TB2 drones a year. Russia is developing a new generation of laser weapons systems that can blind satellites and destroy drones, but Bayraktar said such weapons were ineffective against TB2. As he claimed, “their range is limited, so if the range of your sensors and weapons is longer, they will not work.”
Baykar is already preparing the next generation TB3, a drone with folding wings, which can be attached or detached from small aircraft carrier runways. The unmanned MUIS or Kizilelma fighter aircraft is also in the works.
“By the will of God, the first flight of Kizilelma will take place next year, while of TB3 either by the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023”, Bayraktar pointed out. “If one looks further into the horizon, we are working on taxi drones, for which we will have to develop a higher level of autonomous technology, basically artificial intelligence, which will revolutionize how people move around cities,” he added.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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