Ukraine received Bayraktar TB2 UAVs bought from Turkey.

Ukraine has received the UAVs purchased from Turkey, Ukrainian president announced on 7th March: "Modern Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles are already in Ukraine," Petro Poroshenko said in a Twitter post, the Daily Sabah reports.

Bayraktar TB2 armed UAV (Picture source: Baykar Makina)

Earlier in January, Poroshenko announced that Ukraine signed an agreement to purchase Bayraktar TB2 armed UAVs from Turkey for the Ukrainian army. He stressed that the purchase of armed UAVs is part of a partnership program between Ukraine and NATO member states. Bayraktar TB2 has been used by the Turkish Armed Forces and Turkey's Security Directorate since 2015. 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-m wing span, 650-kg maximum take-off weight and a 55-kg payload capacity. Prototype Development Phase started within 2007 based on 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. 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.