Turkey: Opens co-production of military drones with other countries

By Paul Iddon

On May 17, Iran inaugurated a military drone plant in Tajikistan and was added to the list of countries that are co-producing drones with other countries.

At the inauguration ceremony in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, the head of the Iranian General Staff, General Mohammad Bagheri, said that Tehran was now in a position to “export military equipment to allied and friendly countries, contributing to its security and strengthening.” lasting peace “.

The facility will produce the Iranian HESA Ababil-2, which operates either as a surveillance vehicle or a “kamikaze” drone. Models of Ababil-2, such as Qasef-1 and Qasef-2K, made by Houthi rebels in Yemen, have been used repeatedly in attacks against Saudi Arabia. The know-how and infrastructure for the production and maintenance of this drone on Tajik soil will provide Dushanbe with a cheaper alternative to man-made aircraft (the country’s Air Force is obsolete and almost non-existent) or more advanced and more expensive. drones on the market.

In addition, the diffusion of military drones in the countries of Central Asia will be enhanced.

The inauguration of the Ababil-2 plant in Dushanbe came less than a year after an order placed by neighboring Kyrgyzstan (with an equally weak Air Force) in Turkey asking to buy a Bayraktar TB2. It is not clear whether these drone supplies signal an armaments rally between the two countries, which in early 2021 became embroiled in a brief war.

One week before the unveiling of the Iranian plant in Tajikistan, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) announced that it had signed an agreement with Kazakhstan Engineering to co-produce TAI’s Anka drones in Kazakhstan. The agreement provides for the provision of know-how as well as maintenance and repair services by TAI. Kazakhstan is the first country outside Turkey to produce Anka, but not the first country Ankara has sought to work with for this purpose.

Turkey had already sold Bayraktar TB2 to its close ally in the South Caucasus – Azerbaijan – which Baku used in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war against Armenian forces. Then, Turkey and Azerbaijan tried to expand their defense ties by signing the “Susa Declaration” in June 2021. In fact, it was planned to build a factory for the production of Turkish drones – possibly TB2 – in the territory of Azerbaijan. Today, the evolution of this project is unclear.

Another country with which Turkey planned to build its unmanned aircraft was Ukraine. Kyiv had procured a significant number of Bayraktar TB2s in 2019. The successes of the TB2s on the battlefield against Russian invading forces have left the Ukrainians satisfied.

Last October, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba announced that Kyiv would build a plant to produce Turkish drones on Ukrainian soil. “The plot of land where the unit will be built has already been selected,” he said in a press conference.

The Russian invasion that followed may not have canceled that plan, but it certainly did. Turkey has continued to send TB2 to Ukraine since the outbreak of the recent war, arguing that these deliveries are not state-of-the-art military equipment sales, as the Bayraktar are manufactured by the private company Baykar. Ankara is claiming a role in rebuilding Ukraine’s post-war defense industry, and Kyiv would certainly like to see more military equipment from Turkey, given TB2’s success in that war.

Before Ukraine, TB2s attracted foreign buyers thanks to their operational performance in Azerbaijan in the autumn of 2020. In the same war, the unmanned Harop aircraft built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) stood out. The Harop is a drone designed mostly to strike the enemy air defenses. The Azeris used the Harop against the Armenian S-300 missile systems in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Last fall, there were reports that Israel and Morocco were very close to agreeing to co-produce drones – “kamikaze” – possibly Harops – in the North African country. Israeli media have reported that the IAI received $ 22 million from Morocco in 2021, sparking rumors that the amount was paid under the drone deal. Morocco has also ordered TB2 from Turkey. The combination of Harops and TB2 in an army arsenal could prove deadly, as Azerbaijan showed about two years ago.

The above developments clearly show that the proliferation of military drones is in full swing worldwide.