Turkey proves it has surpassed Russia in developing attack UAVs

Turkey develops heavy weapons

The CEO of Türkiye's Bayrak company, Haluk Bayraktar, recently made a rather impressive statement on the country's national television: "Türkiye has bought helicopters, drones and tanks from abroad.

Those deals stopped when we decided to develop equally advanced weapons and vehicles ourselves. And after more than 10 years of determination, we have moved forward step by step and have started to realize our determination," Bayraktar said.

So what weapons has Türkiye produced itself? Türkiye has successfully produced and exported the T129 ATAK attack helicopter. In July 2018, Ankara signed the first export contract for the T129 ATAK to a Pakistani customer for up to 30 units.

It is known that this line of attack helicopters has also participated in the Turkish Army's military campaign in Syria. Along with the success of the T129 ATAK, Türkiye has also developed the extremely modern Altay tank line when they are evaluated as not inferior to the Russian T-90A or the American M1A1.

However, that is not the most successful achievement of the Turkish defense industry, because according to Defence-blog, Ankara has demonstrated its outstanding development before Russia and some other powers when it successfully researched and produced the Bayraktar medium-range attack and reconnaissance UAV.

The Bayraktar UAV has extremely impressive parameters when it has a wingspan of up to 12m. The design of Bayraktar is still similar to previous versions using propeller engines. The flight ceiling of Bayraktar when tested can reach more than 8,200m, its operating time in the air is up to more than 24 hours.

With Bayraktar, Türkiye can completely skip relying on the US MQ-1 Predator unmanned attack aircraft stationed at Incirlik Air Base to destroy terrorist targets along the border with Syria. Along with that, it is more proactive in choosing its targets.

The Bayraktar's unique feature is that it is modular, with the wings and fuselage removable when needed, while the main material used to make it is carbon fiber to make the fuselage lighter while the frame is made of aluminum. The Bayraktar's distinctive design can be recognized by its inverted V-shaped tail.

Meanwhile, the Bayraktar flight control system has an autonomous mode for all three phases including take-off, cruise flight and landing without the need for operator assistance. Most of the electronic equipment on Bayraktar is developed by Bayrak based on NATO military standards.

Each Bayraktar GCS ground control station of this UAV family can simultaneously operate multiple UAVs and these stations are also designed to counter weapons of mass destruction.

The new Bayraktar version began testing its weapons system in 2015 and this attack UAV is equipped with two UMTAS anti-tank missiles also developed by Türkiye. Each UMTAS missile weighs just over 37kg and is mounted on both wings of the Bayraktar TB2.

The UMTAS has a diameter of about 160mm with a minimum range of 500m and a maximum of 8,000m, it can be deployed from an altitude of 5,000m to avoid Bayraktar being attacked by enemy air defense systems.

Russia struggles to develop

Although Russia is the world's leading military power, it has not been very successful in the field of UAV development. Although Moscow is trying very hard to narrow the gap with the West in the field of large-scale reconnaissance and attack UAVs, reality shows that catching up with China or Iran is also very difficult for Russia.

According to observers, drones like the Orlan-10 used by Russia in Syria are incredibly primitive. The Korsar has a short flight time and low weapons payload, making it unable to replace fighter jets on the battlefield.

Researching and designing a UAV with features similar to the American MQ-1 Predator is still a distant future for the Russians, so in the immediate future they have to temporarily "put out the fire" with an extremely strange solution.

Russia bought a number of Austrian-made DA42 Twin Star twin-engine light civil aircraft, removed the cockpit for the pilot to install electronic and navigation equipment to turn it into a UAV.

The Russian DA42B can be controlled from a distance of 250 km, carry a weapon payload of 600 kg, and patrol continuously in the air for 12 hours. Although it is still far from reaching the parameters of the Predator or Reaper, this is still a big step forward for the Russians.

Thanks to the photovoltaic block under the nose, the DA42B can carry Ataka anti-tank missiles during attack missions, but is it possible to transmit images to the command post in real time?

This is of course only a temporary solution. In the long run, Russia still has to focus on investing heavily in research to create a true UCAV.

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