Baykar Makina

For 2023, the head of Baykar Makina, Selchuk Bayraktar, is the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Erdogan.

2025: Plan to build a plant to produce UAVs in Morocco

According to Turkish sources, a Baykar drone factory will be built on the territory of Morocco. To do this, the Turkish corporation has already registered its subsidiary Atlas Defense by January 2025.

It is assumed that in addition to the production of products directly for the Moroccan armed forces, part will be exported.

After the advent of the plant, the Turks will be able to save on logistics, and the Moroccans will become the leading exporters of UAVs in Africa.

The Turks were not alone in moving part of their UAV production to Africa. This was previously done by the Israeli BlueBird (a subsidiary of IAI), which created the production of SpyX kamikaze drones.

The Moroccan authorities become the main military allies of Western powers after the withdrawal of the French and Americans from the Sahel. The strengthening of the Moroccan army is precisely in the interests of the West, which needs to restrain Algeria, which seeks regional leadership.

2024

Test flights of a new modification of the Bayraktar attack drone TB3 from the landing craft

On November 19, 2024, personnel of test flights of a new modification of the Turkish Bayraktar TB3 attack drone from the Anadoly universal landing ship (UDC) appeared. Previously, UAVs of this type practiced takeoff from a ground springboard that simulates the deck.

The video demonstrates the fundamental possibility of using Bayraktars and similar drones on aircraft-carrying ships. They cannot completely replace carrier-based jets, but they are quite capable of closing a significant part of the tasks.

Sales in Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa

By November 2024, in addition to Ukraine, Bayraktars were purchased by Romanians, Poles, Albanians and Kosovars. One was acquired by Lithuanians for Ukrainian formations.

The Romanians have already received the first batch, for which a separate unit was created. And in Kosovo, these UAVs play a crucial role in monitoring Serbian units.

In the Middle East and Asia, unlike Europe, cooperation goes mainly by localizing production, which expands the geography of the Turkish presence.

In the Middle East, Turkish drones purchased, Saudi Arabia,, and UAE Qatar. Kuwait Iraq The Saudis opted for Akynji from Baykar, as well as Karayel from Vestel, which did not indicate in the infographic below, since they are only in Saudi Arabia.

The UAE, according to some reports, purchased more than a hundred Bayraktars, but they integrated precision weapons of their production. Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar have also acquired the most popular drones. Their price and capabilities in the context of tasks to combat militants and regular patrolling are ideal for countries in the region.

In Central Asia, the Turks went further, gradually expanding the number of their enterprises in the countries of the region. The localization of two enterprises at once - TAI and Baykar - has already been agreed in Kazakhstan, where there is an Anka UAV. Three types of drones were purchased by Kyrgyzstan, and Bayraktars were purchased in Turkmenistan.

For the Turkish authorities, technological expansion has become an ideal opportunity to increase efforts through the Organization of Turkic States, which aims to expand its strength in various fields, including the military. The lack of an alternative creates great conditions for them to do so.

In South Asia, Turkish products are presented Pakistan in - one of Turkey's key partners. They purchased both Bayraktary and Akynji. Also, 24 Bayraktar UAVs were acquired by the authorities, and Bangladesh another six drones of this type were contracted. Maldives

In Southeast Asia, TAI won as they were able to sell 12 Anka drones to Indonesian authorities and three to Malaysian authorities there. In addition, they expressed interest in the acquisition of Turkish products by the Japanese authorities, but the matter has not yet reached further conversations.

15 countries in Africa already had drones or agreements to supply them by November 2024. And there are so many states that have considered or are considering the acquisition of Turkish drones that it is easier to count those countries that did not. If you look at the map below, then everything becomes obvious without words.

Turkish drones, due to their cheapness relative to western UAVs, as well as the wide range of both the choice of drones themselves and airborne weapons, have become an ideal option for African countries.

To fulfill the elementary tasks of patrolling or fighting terrorists, that is, to counter the enemy without air defense equipment, UAVs of Turkish companies are a formidable weapon.

Baykar spoke about the construction of a plant near Kyiv

Baykar began building a drone production plant near Kyiv. This was announced in early February 2024 by the executive director of the company Haluk Bayraktar.

Our plant is under construction. We need about 12 months to complete the construction, and then we will move on to internal equipment, equipment and organizational structure, "Reuters quoted Bayraktar as saying.

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Фото: Reuters

According to the head of Baykar, the annual performance of the Ukrainian enterprise will be about 120 Bayraktar drones. He also noted that it is not yet clear whether these will be TB2 or TB3 models. About 500 jobs are planned at the plant, Haluk Bayraktar said.

When asked by Reuters about possible problems regarding the safety of the plant, the Baykar CEO said that "the plans are being implemented in full, and nothing can stop it."^[1]

Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the construction of the Bayraktar production plant "falls under the topic of demilitarization" and "will only prolong the suffering of Ukrainians." A Kremlin spokesman said that the appearance of such a plant would not prevent Moscow from achieving all the goals of a special military operation.

At the end of January 2024, Haluk Bayraktar said that the construction of the enterprise near Kyiv was suspended because Ukrainian officials extorted a bribe of $10 million from him for connecting the future plant to power grids.

2023

Statement by the Ukrainian Minister on the construction of a Bayraktar UAV production plant in Ukraine

In Ukraine, they began to build a Bayraktar UAV production plant, the Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industries said in July 2023. But in reality, construction work began only in 2024. Earlier, the general director of the Turkish company Baykar Makina said that they expect to start production there in 2025.

Turkey and Ukraine signed a memorandum on the development of joint production of drones back in July 2023. Then Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar said that he expects to start producing Bayraktar TB2 and Bayraktar Akinci in Ukraine in 2025. Turkish manufacturer will invest $100 million in the plant.

Which countries purchase UAV companies

The second Karabakh war in 2020, the fighting in Libya and the initial stage of the armed conflict in Ukraine created an ideal advertisement for the Turkish attack drones Bayraktar TB2, which allowed the Turks to conclude dozens of new contracts.

By May 2023, Turkish UAVs of various types are in service with more than 20 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. More than 15 countries have already held substantive negotiations on the purchase of unmanned weapons.

2022: Plan to increase production due to high order levels

In August 2022, the Turkish news agency SavunmaSanayiST published an interview with the CEO of the private company Baykar Technology Haluk Bayraktar, in which he spoke about the future plans of the industrial enterprise.

He stated that 20 Bayraktar TB2 drones are currently being produced at Baykar facilities every month. This amount is not enough to meet the needs of all 22 customer countries (more than 500 UAVs have been ordered for the next three years), so an increase to 30 UAVs per month is expected by next year.

Representatives of the company intend to achieve this goal through the construction of a plant in Esenyurt, money for which was allocated back in September 2019. In addition, this enterprise plans to produce 46 Bayraktar TB2 UAVs, 24 AKINCI UAVs, 36 combat unmanned aircraft systems, as well as many ground systems and additional systems annually.

Ukrainian news outlets reported on the company's intention to produce Turkish drones in Ukraine. Moreover, we are talking about the release of UAV Bayraktar TB2, Bayraktar Akıncı and Bayraktar Kizilelma.

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