“Those shiny tanks are being set on fire — Bayraktar — that’s the new craze,” read the lyrics of a popular Ukrainian song dedicated to a drone that has become one of the country’s many symbols of resistance.
The “Bayraktar” has become so popular that Ukrainians are now naming their pets after the Turkish-made drone.
Last month, Kiev’s mayor announced that a newborn lemur at the city’s zoo would be named Bayraktar, and the Foreign Ministry tweeted a photo of another Bayraktar, a cub at the Kiev police dog training center.
Western and Ukrainian officials praised Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 drones for playing a role in countering Russian attacks.
Last month, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace reportedly told UK lawmakers that drones were “delivering munitions” to “Russian artillery and its supply lines”. He added that it was “incredibly important” to slow down and block the Russian advance.
The TB2, a medium-altitude long-duration drone (Male), has been operational for years. It has been in use by the Turkish military in northern Iraq and Syria since 2014. More recently, it has been credited with helping to balance the scales in conflicts such as Libya and Nagorno Karabakh.
But videos recently released by the Ukrainian military showing his attacks on Russian military targets have gone viral, putting him in the spotlight again.
The drone’s success “is not just the ability to hit the Russian military,” said Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for Naval Analysis of Russia (CNAS). “It’s a PR win too.”
According to Bendett, the drone worked as expected, but is not “invulnerable”. Open source evidence suggests that some may have been taken down by the Russians.
Drones “are part of the Ukrainian social media campaign that is executed very well by the Ukrainian military and civilians,” he said. Videos of Bayraktar attacks have gone viral on social media and this is “a huge morale boost… and a huge tactical victory”.
The TB2 and other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) developed in Turkey have put the country on the drone map, along with the US, China and Israel, Bendett said.
Turkey, which maintains close defense and economic ties with Russia and Ukraine, has been cautious about publicizing what has become one of its most famous exports.
Drone sales were a major irritant to Russia long before its invasion of Ukraine; Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, warned late last year that Turkish drones would have a “destabilizing” impact on the region.
A high-profile Turkish bureaucrat told reporters on Friday that Russia had repeatedly complained to Ankara about drone sales to Ukraine. “They used to complain before, they’re complaining now, but we’ve already given the answer… [de] a private company and this purchase was made before the war,” he said in an interview with foreign media.
Ukraine was the first country to buy the TB2s in 2019 and has ordered at least 36 drones so far. Last month, its defense minister announced the arrival of a new shipment of drones.
Selcuk Bayraktar, chief technology officer at Baykar Technologies, is more interested in talking about his drone technology than politics. He is also the son-in-law of the Turkish president, who emerged as a key mediator between Russia and Ukraine in the war.
Bayraktar has listened to the song dedicated to his eponymous drone and is familiar with the social media phenomenon that Ukraine has become, but he measures his words carefully when discussing Ukraine.
“I think it’s one of the symbols of resistance, it gives them hope,” Bayraktar, an engineer and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told CNN during a rare visit to the drone production facility in Istanbul last week.
“People are resisting and defending their homeland from an illegal occupation and… if you want independence, you have to be able to stand up and resist, and I think that’s what the brave people of Ukraine and the leadership have done,” he said. . “At the same time, you need technology, you need your own indigenous defense capability, but when people’s lives are at risk… I don’t want to compare that to any kind of technology.”
On display is the “Kizilelma” (Red Apple), Turkey’s first unmanned fighter jet, which has just arrived on the production line and is named after the Turkish mythological expression that symbolizes the ideal – the goal one wants to achieve. Bayraktar said it should start flying next year.
Industry experts say factors like cost are what make drones attractive.
“The Bayraktar TB2 offers a near-perfect balance of price and combat efficiency and has an affordable unit cost,” said Can Kasapoglu, Director of Defense Research at the Turkish Center for Economics and Foreign Policy (EDAM).
“The TB-2’s competitors in the weapons market are more expensive, come with more bureaucratic and political obstacles to procurement, or come with uncertain supply sustainability.”
The company did not disclose pricing information.
The drone is also combat-tested, which is a crucial criterion in weapons transactions, he said.
“When the music stops, TB2s will likely do more damage to the opponent than they can handle,” added Kasapoglu. “This is of critical importance, especially for NATO’s eastern flank.”
Baykar Tech has signed contracts with at least 19 countries, most of which were signed in the last 18 months. Among the buyers is Poland, the only member of the European Union and NATO to have ordered the UAVs.
Turkey’s aerospace and defense industry recorded more than $3 billion in exports last year, a record, according to the country’s state news agency.
“It is important to strengthen defense and aviation exports to countries with which Turkey has strategic relations,” Haluk Bayraktar, CEO of Baykar and younger brother of Selcuk, told Anadolu news agency in January.
“In addition to providing an economic gain, defense exports also provide a suitable basis for establishing strategic relationships with the countries you export to.”
For Selcuk Bayraktar, this is not just a family business and a lifelong passion for engineering. He said it’s about ensuring his nation’s independence and technological self-sufficiency.
“When I was 20 years old… you could say that we would be the best at football… or at baklava, at kebab, but nobody could say that we would develop a niche technology that is going to be world famous.”
With information from Celine Alkhaldi and Eyad Kourdi
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
