Ukraine willing to buy more armed drones from Turkey.

Ukraine is willing to buy another batch of armed drones from Turkey, a topic that was discussed during the Turkish Defense minister’s official visit to Kiev, according to media reports.

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Bayraktar TB2 reconnaissance and strike drone (Picture source: Baykar)

In a report by Anadolu Agency published on Sunday, July 12, Ukraine’s National Defense Minister Andriy Taran express his country’s intention to buy Turkish-made drones during a meeting with Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Friday, July10.

In 2019, Ukraine bought six Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 reconnaissance and strike drones. As part of the deal, these UAVs, produced by Turkish firm Baykar, will be delivered to the Ukrainian army within a year, along with three ground control stations.

The TB2 armed UAV was developed for tactical reconnaissance and surveillance missions and can also carry ammo, do assaults, and has laser target acquisition.

The Bayraktar UAV System has a cruising speed of 70 knots with an operational flight altitude of 24.000 feet, 24 hours of flight time and a communication range of 150 km and has a 12-meter wingspan, 650-kg maximum take-off weight, and a 55-kg payload capacity. Prototype Development Phase started within 2007 based on the competition model. Bayraktar Tactical UAS with its critical all subsystems including Flight Control, INS-GPS, Automatic Take Off-Landing systems developed in house demonstrated fully automatic taxi, take off, cruise, landing, parking phases in 2009 and was selected as the winner of the program. The final production stage officially started in 2012.

Based on the agreement in January, Turkish UAV manufacturer Baykar was to produce six Bayraktar TB2 and deliver them to Ukraine in a year. Along with the UAVs, three ground control station systems and equipment were also mentioned as scheduled to be delivered. Poroshenko said that the next step of the program is the creation of a joint Ukrainian-Turkish enterprise in southeastern Zaporizhia city of Ukraine that will produce components for modern unmanned technology.

As of January 2019, Turkish Armed Forces had a fleet of 75 Bayraktar TB2 platforms. Some have been used in Libya at least since early 2020, and even shot down.