Türkiye’s new combat drone, tailored for the country’s first aircraft carrier, on Tuesday became the first of its kind in the world to successfully take off and land on a short-runway warship.
“A groundbreaking moment in aviation history!” its developer, Baykar, said on social media platform X.
A video published by the company showed the Bayraktar TB3 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) taking off from TCG Anadolu for a brief flight before performing a successful landing.
“The Bayraktar TB3 has made history as the first unmanned aerial vehicle to successfully take off and land on the short-runway carrier TCG Anadolu!” Baykar said.
The TB3 is the first of its kind, boasting the ability to fold its wings. It made its maiden flight in late October last year and has already completed low, medium and high-altitude performance and system identification tests.
Earlier this year, it had completed its inaugural ski-jump test from a land-based platform.
To date, the platform has logged about 823 hours of flight time during its test flights. Its mass production started in late October.
“We never stopped chasing what we love,” said Selçuk Bayraktar, Baykar’s chairperson of the board and chief technology officer.
The drone is equipped with the PD-170 engine developed domestically by Turkish aerospace engine manufacturer TUSAŞ Engine Industries (TEI), and it can fly for more than 24 hours.
“It was a remarkable takeoff and landing,” Bayraktar said.
“Good willing, our flights will continue to progress with the same momentum in the future,” he noted.
The TB3 is expected to be able to stay in the air more, climb to higher altitudes and carry more weapons than Baykar’s famed Bayraktar TB2 platform, which helped swing conflicts in multiple countries, such as Azerbaijan and Libya, as well as Ukraine.
The TB3’s capabilities boast key innovations for unmanned aerial vehicles in this class. The homegrown drone, which will have beyond-line-of-sight communication capability, can be controlled from very long distances.
With reconnaissance/surveillance, intelligence and attack missions on overseas targets with its smart munitions, it is expected to have a multiplier effect on Türkiye’s deterrent power.
The TCG Anadolu, the amphibious assault ship Türkiye commissioned last year, is also dubbed the world’s first drone carrier.
Baykar has become the face of Türkiye’s defense and aerospace sector, and derives the vast majority of its revenue from its UAVs and combat drone exports.
It is the nation’s top defense exporter, constituting nearly one-third of the sector’s record $5.5 billion worth of sales last year.
In 2023, 90% of Baykar’s revenue came from foreign markets, with the company increasing its exports by 50% to $1.8 billion (TL 62.04 billion), up from $1.2 billion the previous year.
The surge pushed Baykar into Türkiye’s top 10 exporters across all sectors.
As of August this year, the company had signed agreements with 34 countries for its Bayraktar TB2 and 10 countries for its Akıncı combat drones, spanning three continents.
The company’s drones, developed entirely in-house, have played crucial roles in Türkiye’s domestic and international military operations, demonstrating their effectiveness in conflicts from Libya and Ukraine to the Sahel and the Caucasus.
