Turkish aerospace and defense company Baykar has announced that it has signed the first export contract of Bayraktar Akıncı Attack Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or Drone (TİHA) with an unnamed customer. Haluk Bayraktar, General Manager of Baykar Tech, in a statement to Anadolu Agency reporter, disclosed:
“We have also completed the first export contract of Bayraktar Akinci TİHA. Within the scope of the contract, we will deliver Bayraktar Akinci TİHA and ground systems in 2023.”
About Akinci Drone:
The Akinci drone is made by Baykar Tech, a private aerospace and defense company based in Turkey. Baykar has stated that the Akinci can attack targets in the air and on the ground and operate alongside fighter jets, flying higher and staying in the air longer than Turkey’s existing UAVs.
The Akinci has a 65-feet wingspan, is developed to have an extraordinary 24 hours of endurance, and fly up to 40,000 feet. Ukrainian-built AI-450 turboprop engines will power the Turkish next-gen drone.
The UAV is more advanced than the company’s Bayraktar TB2, sold to countries including Ukraine and Poland. Bayraktar TB2 is a Medium Altitude and Long Endurance (MALE) tactical UAV, while Akinci falls in High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UAV.
The drone will carry a range of missiles developed by Turkey’s Roketsan. The powerful Akinci UAV is expected to be equipped with many state-of-art weapons, including Bozdoğan and Gökdoğan missiles. The Akinci can reportedly even fire Turkish-built Roketsan SOM missiles that can hit targets up to 240 km away.
Another key feature of the Akinci UAV is its indigenously developed radars. The UAV will be outfitted with indigenously developed systems, including AESA radar, a SAR/GMTI radar, a wide-area surveillance system, an EWS (electronic warfare) system, an electronic and signal intelligence suite, and beyond-line-of-sight satellite communications systems, the sum of which makes the Akinci one of the best platforms available in the market.
Source: Anadolu Agency
Umair Aslam is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Defense Insight. He has worked as a defense journalist reporting on military modernization programs, defense industry, arms procurement, and emerging technologies.
