How relatively cheap Turkish drones have had an outsized impact
on recent conflicts.
At a trade show in the Azerbaijani capital Baku on May 28,
crowds that gathered to snap selfies alongside a Bayraktar
(“Flag Bearer”) TB2 drone illustrated the celebrity the aircraft
has achieved since its maiden flight in 2014.
In Ukraine, where at least 36 of the TB2 aircraft have been
purchased by the country's armed forces, a song was famously
penned to honor the drone and several Ukrainian animals have
also been named Bayraktar as a tribute.
Ukrainian protestors have also been filmed singing the Bayraktar
song to taunt Russian troops.
The Cessna-sized drone hit the headlines again on May 29 when a
Lithuanian crowdfunding effort raised 5 million euros to
purchase a TB2 for Ukraine as the country fights the ongoing
Russian invasion.
The TB2 was developed in Turkey by Selcuk Bayraktar, a graduate
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has been
compared to America’s Elon Musk for the unique military aircraft
he has developed and a lively social media presence that is
sometimes vicious toward his critics.
Bayraktar, who is the chief technology officer of the defense
company Baykar, became a son-in-law to Recep Tayyip Erdogan when
he married the Turkish president’s daughter in 2016.
The Bayratkar TB2 can stay aloft for up to 27 hours powered by a
simple propellor engine and can fly up to 150 kilometers from
its base. The aircraft can also be fitted with four "smart
micromunition" missiles accurate enough to destroy armored
vehicles from several kilometers away.
But the aircraft is seen as revolutionary for its relatively low
cost and easy availability. Large U.S.-made military drones such
as the MQ-9 Reaper cost tens of millions of dollars and even
countries that could afford such tech are unlikely to try and
acquire it.
Washington only approves military sales to a select few
governments and pricey American combat drones are widely seen as
failing to live up to the ‘afford to lose’ concept of unmanned
aircraft.
Turkey, with an authoritarian Islamist president at the helm,
has fewer qualms about selling its weaponry and the TB2 is
currently in use by at least 11 militaries. Several more
countries are awaiting delivery including Poland -- the first EU
country to purchase the drones.
The price per unit of the Bayraktar TB2 has not been made public
but the Lithuanian organizers of the recent crowdfunding
campaign have suggested that 5 million euros was enough for one
aircraft. It's unclear if an attendant command station will be
purchased along with the drone.
TB2 drones have been used by Turkey in what it calls
“counterterrorism” operations against Kurdish militants and in
Libya’s ongoing civil war. But their devastating impact was most
widely seen during the 2020 conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh when
TB2s were deployed by Azerbaijan against ethnic Armenian forces.
Dozens of videos were released by Azerbaijan showing Armenian
fighters fleeing as missiles hissed toward vehicles that in
previous conflicts would have been safely out of sight behind
tree lines or hills.
An Armenian fighter whom RFE/RL spoke to in 2020 said drones
could be heard “constantly” in the sky overhead during the
massive Azerbaijani offensive to retake Nagorno-Karabakh and
Armenian soldiers were forced to walk alone in the open as the
only 'defense' against Bayraktar missiles. A single fighter was
apparently seen as not worth being killed with an expensive
missile.
The
impact of the TB2 in the Ukraine conflict initially appeared to
be significant, with Kyiv posting several videos of major
targets including Russian naval vessels being destroyed, but the
release of such videos has slowed and the Russian military
claims to have shot down dozens of the aircraft.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy recently hinted that the
slow, easily-detected drone may have become easy pickings for
Russian anti-aircraft systems, telling journalists at a press
conference that a "history" of air defense means that "with all
due respect to Bayraktar, and to any hardware, I will tell you,
frankly, this is a different war.”
“Drones may help, but they will not make the difference,” he
added.
