Alwaght- Turkey has enlarged its fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with domestically made armed drones.
Turkey's military on Sunday took delivery of Akinci, Turkish for “raider”, which is made by the private Turkish drone maker, Baykar.
It has been the most advanced and sophisticated drone developed by Turkey so far.
Baykar says 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 drones will carry various weaponry, including a range of missiles developed by Turkish contractor Roketsan.
Selcuk Bayraktar, Erdogan’s son-in-law, is Baykar’s chief technology officer.
The Akinci is more advanced than Baykar’s Bayraktar TB2 UCAV, which has been sold to countries including Ukraine, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Poland.
Bayraktar TB2 UCAVs were used in Ankara’s lengthy conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group in the country’s southeast as well as the conflicts in Libya and Azerbaijan.
“Many more countries are waiting in line for our national UCAVs,” Erdogan said.
Erdgoan said the defense industry will be a locomotive of every other success that Turkey will achieve in the period ahead.
“Cutting the defense industry’s external dependency to 20% from 80% in such short time is one of greatest achievements in the history of the Republic.”
