The Turkish military is unveiling a new upgraded “unmanned combat aerial vehicle,” theĀ Bayraktar Akıncı, developed by private drone manufacturerĀ Baykar Defense, which is owned by President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan’s son-in-law SelƧuk Bayraktar. The Akıncı, which is Turkish for “raider,”Ā is a more advanced version of Turkey’s iconic Bayraktar TB2, able to fly higher and stay in the air longer as well as carry more missiles. The TB2, developed in collaboration with another Turkish defense contractor, Roketsan, has been used by Ankara against Kurdish PKK guerillas in northern Iraq, and against Syrian regime forces in Idlib provice.Ā Turkey is said to have 75 of theĀ TB2 drones in its own fleet.
Ankara has also provided theĀ TB2Ā to various foreign militaries;Ā it isĀ held to have been decisive inĀ Azerbaijan’s victory overĀ Armenian forces in last year’sĀ Nagorno-Karabakh war, as well as the Libyan government’s victory over the warlord Khalifa Haftar. Ukraine, having already tested an initial dispatchment of the droneĀ purchased two years ago, is now ordering 24 more for use in its war against Russian-backed separatists. Poland recently became the first EU member state to purchase the Turkish droneĀ (AhvalNews, MEMO)
Another Turkish-manufactured drone, the Kargu, produced by STM company, One of these drones may have been used in the world’s first fully autonomous armed strike, in which artificial intelligence was used to “hunt down” targets. The March 2020 strike came in the context of the Tripoli government’s “Operation Peace Storm” against Haftar’s forces, which were then beseiging the city. AĀ UN reportĀ on the strike issued this March found: “Logistics convoys and retreating HAF [Haftar-affiliated forces]Ā were…hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2…and other loitering munitions.” (IFL Science)
Photo: Wikipedia
