Bayraktar TB2: Türkiye's flag bearer combat drone

By Goksel Yildirim

Bayraktar TB2, Türkiye's homegrown drone, has become a flag bearer for the country's defense industry as it was sold to the most countries in the world.

Produced by Turkish drone-maker Baykar, Bayraktar TB2 completed its first 1,000 flight hours in 2015 without any breakage.

After achieving its first export success with Qatar in 2018, Baykar signed contracts with 33 countries to date for TB2.

Bayraktar TB2, which operates in all adverse weather conditions such as desert heat, freezing cold, snow and storms in many different regions of the world, has entered the inventory of NATO and the EU member countries.

Exceeding 750,000 flight hours so far, it broke the Turkish altitude record in its class by reaching 27,030 feet.

With this flight time, Bayraktar TB2 holds the title of the longest-serving national aircraft.

On July 16, 2019, it broke another record with 27 hours and three minutes of non-stop flight in Kuwait.

Its features include fully automatic navigation and route tracking, precision automatic take-off and landing supported by internal sensor fusion, fully automatic taxi and parking, support for semi-autonomous flight modes, fault tolerant and triple redundant sensor fusion application, cross-redundant ground control station system, homegrown redundant servo actuator units, and redundant lithium-based battery units.

With a communication range of 300 kilometers, Bayraktar TB2 also has a satellite communication option.

It can carry up to four laser-guided smart munitions and can carry a payload of 150 kilograms.

To provide firepower to Bayraktar TB2, MAM-L, MAM-C, BOZOK ammunition and Kemankes mini smart cruise missile have been integrated so far.

- Successful operations

Bayraktar TB2, which has successfully served in various operations in Türkiye and abroad, has attracted the attention of the world, especially with its use in Libya, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

For the first time, in Türkiye's Operation Spring Shield, it flew in squadrons and destroyed many armored vehicles, howitzers, multiple barrel rocket launchers and air defense systems.

Within the scope of the operation organized in the Idlib region of Syria, Bayraktar TB2 flew over 2,000 hours despite all kinds of electronic warfare.

It also played an important role in ending the 30-year occupation in Karabakh region.

In addition to military use, Bayraktar TB2 is also used in missions such as fighting forest fires, disasters and irregular migration.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul