The Turkish company specializing in the production of military drones has announced that it will not sell the TB2 Bayraktar UAV to Russia, no matter how high the price is paid.
In an interview with BBC news agency (UK), Mr. Haluk Bayraktar (chief executive officer) and Selcuk Bayraktar (chief technology officer) of Baykar company, announced they would not sell any weapons to Russia.
“Our friendship and cooperation with Ukraine have been maintained for many years. So no matter how much Russia offers to pay, we will not provide them with weapons in the current context.”, Mr. Haluk said.
“All our support goes to Ukraine. Nothing can overshadow our cooperation with Ukraine, our position on this issue is very clear,” Mr. Haluk
Despite keeping a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Turkey still sells Bayraktar TB2 drones to Ukraine. Bayraktar TB2 UAV is considered the pride of Turkey and has shown high efficiency in real combat in the past few years.
This line of unmanned combat aircraft has also proven effective on the Ukrainian battlefield, especially in urban operations at the early stages of the conflict.
However, in phase 2, when Russia deployed dense anti-aircraft shields, the role of the Bayraktar TB2 UAV was limited. However, overall, this is still a weapon that causes Russia a lot of damage.
In an interview published by RBC Ukraine on August 8, Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said that Baykar Group has established a company in the country and is in the process of building a factory specializing in manufacturing Bayraktar TB2 armed drone
“The Ukrainian government approved a bilateral agreement on the construction of the plant and sent it to parliament for approval,” Bodnar said.
According to the ambassador, Baykar bought a plot of land in Ukraine to develop a project to produce combat UAVs in Ukraine. This decision is not only political but also “practical because some important components in the UAV are manufactured in Ukraine”.
The Kremlin warned that Baykar’s armed drone factory in Ukraine would become “a target for demilitarization”.
“This facility will certainly become the target of a campaign of demilitarization. Opening the plant will only prolong the suffering of the Ukrainian people, and at the same time will not prevent the main goals of the special military operation. special,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference on August 9.
In fact, with a unit price of only about 5 million USD per unit, the Bayraktar TB2 UAV has proven to be “worth every penny”.
Previously, the Russian side admitted that a total of 6 Pantsir-S1 air defense systems in Syria and Libya were destroyed by the Bayraktar TB2 UAV, the Turkish side said this number was up to 20 systems.
In the opposite direction, there were also some Bayraktar TB2 UAVs that were knocked down by Pantsir-S1. Returning to the Ukrainian battlefield, the evidence presented by Kiev shows that the Bayraktar TB2 UAV has caused significant damage to Russian forces.
Ukraine’s Bayraktar TB2 UAVs destroyed not only Russian tanks, armor, and air defense systems, but also Russian warships during the ongoing conflict. Many observers said that the Bayraktar TB2 UAV played an important role in turning the battlefield when Russia first launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24.
The Bayraktar TB2 unmanned attack aircraft marks the leap of the Turkish defense industry, which is considered one of the most powerful combat UAVs in the world. On the Syrian battlefield, this line of UAVs plays a key role in the squadron of Turkish attack drones targeting the Syrian army.
The victims of this UAV are very diverse from main tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers to air defense complexes.
The Bayraktar TB2 UAV can carry four UMTAS anti-tank missiles also developed by Turkey.
Each UMTAS missile weighs more than 37 kg and is mounted on the wings of the Bayraktar TB2 UAV. UMTAS is about 160mm in diameter with a minimum range of 500m and a maximum of 8,000m.
In addition, this UAV is also capable of carrying other types of missiles such as MAM-C, MAM-L with very respectable destructive power.
In order to prevent the Bayraktar TB2 UAV from being attacked by the enemy’s shoulder-mounted air defense system, the developer recommends that the parties use them to fly at an altitude of over 5,000 m.
It is known that this type of drone was developed by engineer Selcuk Bayraktar, an alumnus of the US MIT Academy. The premise of the launch of the Bayraktar TB2 UAV was that Washington refused to sell the MQ-9 UAV to Ankara.
Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 UAV was completed with technological help from countries such as Austria, Canada, Germany, and the UK.
Specifically, they are using motors manufactured by the Austrian corporation Rotax, optoelectronic sensors manufactured by Canada’s Webcam or Germany’s Hensoldt, and weapon mounts manufactured by a British firm.
Bayraktar TB2 UAV has a design with an inverted V-shaped tail section combined with a long vertical tail section, in the middle is a propeller part.
This design helps the Bayraktar TB2 UAV to operate stably and save fuel. They can operate continuously in the air for 27 hours.
A complete combat system of this unmanned combat aircraft will include 6 Bayraktar TB2 UAVs, 2 ground control stations, and multi-channel control transmitter and receiver systems. Each Bayraktar TB2 UAV is equipped with an avionics system with 3 redundant control signal transceiver channels.
The avionics systems with coded intelligent algorithms allow combat UAVs to operate autonomously.
The ability to operate up to 150 km away from the control station, the range of operation if controlled via satellite will be larger, so it is very convenient in combat use.
With a flight speed of up to 130 km/h, a maximum operating altitude of up to 8,200 m and a weapon payload of up to 150 kg, the Bayraktar TB2 UAV is currently one of the best unmanned combat aircraft. best of the world.
