This Eurasian nation became poor after the sun had set on the Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century. The country experienced severe instability in various areas… economic, social and political. However, this State on the shores of the Bosphorus Strait has made a strong comeback as it has stunned the major World Powers, including the US, Russia and China, by manufacturing deadly military drones!

European powerhouses, like Britain, France, Germany or Russia, used to ignore Turkey in the 19th Century and the early 20th Century. The status of Turkey remained the same even during the Cold War between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union in the middle of the 20th Century. However, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk‘s country successfully increased its military strength in the 21st Century as it concentrated on manufacturing drones for defence purposes!

The Turkish people sought help of the Jews in this regard in the 1990s. Although Turkey’s request shocked the Israelis, they agreed to export drones to Ankara, but on a condition! Tel Aviv’s sole condition was that only the Israeli soldiers would handle those drones. Turkey had no other option, but to cancel the deal as the Turkish Armed Forces did not have the capability or training to fly those Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)!

Later, Turkey decided to respond to insults inflicted by the Jewish nation and planned to build a military drone hub on its soil. Decades-long efforts of the Turkish technologists and defence researchers helped the country located in Asia Minor to manufacture quality drones which are far ahead of those manufactured by Israel, the US, Russia or China! As per a recent report prepared by the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS), Turkey’s military drones could decide the fate of a battle at any moment. The Centre mentioned in its report that the US, China and Turkey jointly exported 69 types of instrumented drones to 40 countries in 2018. After that, Turkey emerged as a major player as far as the drone market is concerned.

According to the CNAS report, Turkey has captured 65% of the instrumented military drone market in the past six years. Meanwhile, China controls 26% of the market and the US only 8%! Turkish drones have become popular mainly because of their cheap prices. Also, the process of maintaining and using those drones is quite simple.

Among the drones manufactured by Turkey, the demand for the Bayraktar TB2, a Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV), is the highest. The Government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reportedly exported this drone to six new countries in 2022. Reports suggest that several other countries in Asia and Europe have shown interest in purchasing the Bayraktar TB2.

After commissioning the Bayraktar TB2, the Turkish Armed Forces started using them against the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party. A bloody war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27, 2020. The war lasted until November 10, as the conflict left 2,906 Azerbaijani soldiers and 100 civilians dead. It is believed that the Turkish drones played a crucial role behind the scenes in favour of the Azerbaijani forces. The Bayraktar TB2 drones are also playing an important role in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War! The Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out deadly attacks in Russia with the help of these drones. In some cases, they have been able to evade Air Defence Systems and radars! The Bayraktar TB2 drones have also been used in the Libyan War.

China was the top exporter of military drones in 2014. However, Turkey emerged as the leading exporter of drones after the Armenia-Azerbaijan War in 2020. The CNAS has mentioned in its report that Turkey has been supplying Bayraktar TB2 drones to a number of African nations since 2020, making the African Civil Wars bloody. Defence experts are of the opinion that the NATO countries, too, prefer the Turkish drone! Four European Union (EU) and six NATO countries have acquired the Bayraktar TB2 drones in recent times. Pakistan received these drones, capable of hitting targets 7,500km away, from Turkey in 2023. The Turkish drones, weighing 1,300kg, can fly in the sky for a long time.

So far, India has not acquired the Turkish drones. The Indian Army uses indigenous Nagastra-1 suicide drones. Nagastra-1 is a man-portable system with an all-up weight of 30kg split across two rucksacks, including a ground control station, communication control, payload and pneumatic launcher. India has also imported 31 MQ-1 Predators from the US. MQ-1 Predator is basically an armed, multi-mission, medium-altitude, long-endurance remotely piloted drone which is primarily used by the US Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Defence experts consider the MQ-1 Predator as one of the most advanced drones in the world.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das