Asian countries show interest in Turkish UAVs after Ukraine crisis

By Azernews

By News Center

Turkey’s Baykar Defence Company CEO Haluk Bayraktar has stated that there is great interest in Turkish Bayraktar TB-2s - unmanned aerial vehicles from Asia, Yeni Shafak newspaper has reported.

"China will not be willing to sell drones to many Asian countries around it, and we offer these countries a better option. They show great interest," Bayraktar told Japan's Nikkei Asia newspaper.

The armed unmanned aerial vehicle Bayraktar TB-2 has resurfaced on the agenda, with films showing it blowing up Russian tanks, armored vehicles, and surface-to-air missile defence systems.

Earlier, the international media headlines described it as a "game-changer" with its spectacular performance in the second Karabakh war in 2020.

Since the first Bayraktar TB-2s were delivered to Qatar in 2018, the company has signed 19 export agreements, including ones with Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. Six new transactions have been added to these export deals in the last three months alone.

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), another major defence company, reached a basic agreement with Kazakhstan in November for ANKA (phoenix) unmanned aerial vehicles.

TAI will compete for unmanned aerial vehicle tenders with countries such as China and the United States at the 17th Defence Services Asia Expo and Conference, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the end of March.

TAI's Aksungur (gyrfalcon), a new generation armed unmanned aerial vehicle that joined the Turkish army's inventory last year, has a 50-hour flight time and a rare sonobuoy option for a UAV.

The UAV is said to have advanced detectors and sensors and to be capable of anti-submarine warfare and maritime patrol missions, making it ideal for Indo-Pacific countries.