The Bayraktar TB2, the first domestically produced and national UAV to enter the Turkish Armed Forces inventory, has been armed after approximately a year of development work.
In its first test firing, the Bayraktar TB2 hit its target with pinpoint accuracy. The Bayraktar TB2 uses Roketsan's long-range anti-tank missile, UMTAS, as its ammunition.
The domestically produced UAV had been conducting test flights for some time, loaded with UMTAS missiles. Two missiles, each weighing 37.5 kg, were attached to the wings of the aircraft. Around 12:00 PM, a 2x2 meter target panel was placed in the launch area for the domestically produced UAV, which had taken off. At 2:30 PM, the laser-guided missile on the Bayraktar TB2, having reached the appropriate firing position, was fired by the operator pilot at the ground station from an altitude of 16,000 feet (approximately 5,000 meters) and a distance of 8 kilometers, hitting the target with 100% accuracy.
This development also brought relief to Türkiye internationally. Since 2008, Turkey had wanted to purchase armed UAVs manufactured in the United States, but had not received approval from the US Congress. Attempts by then-Chief of General Staff General Necdet Özel with the Pentagon and then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan with US President Barack Obama had been unsuccessful. The US recently armed two Predator drones stationed at Incirlik and used them against ISIS targets in Syria. Meanwhile, internationally, there had been speculation that Türkiye would purchase armed UAVs from China or Israel.
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