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Bayraktar, this is how Turkey’s drones defend Ukraine against Russia

2 years ago babelfish

Bayraktar, this is how Turkey's drones defend Ukraine against Russia

Bayraktar TB2 armed drones: how they work, who produces them, how much they cost and what role they play in the war in Ukraine. All the details

Ukraine's resistance to Russian invasion relies on the effectiveness of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 armed drones.

Since the first day of the Russian attack, Ukrainian troops have uploaded videos to social media in which they taunted the invading army with stories of the lethal attacks of the Bayraktar TB2, equipped to carry four laser-guided bombs.

"For now, the use of drones is mainly aimed at air defense systems, such as the Buk, or against the logistical means of the Russian Army including fuel tanks," AresDifesa explained last week .

So far, TB2 war drones have been deployed in Libya, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh. Many analysts believe the Turkish drone was decisive in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020.

But will the Turkish drone really be the ace in the hole of the Ukrainian defense?

HOW MANY BAYRAKTAR TB2 DOES UKRAINE HAVE

"According to official estimates, Ukraine should have a total of six TB2 drones against a total order of 54 aircraft," reports AresDifesa .

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense declared the purchase of an unspecified number of TB2 drones and that these were ready to go into combat. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that his country has benefited greatly from Turkish-made drones.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TURKISH DRONES

“The TB2 has been built in more than 250 units to date and has been in service since 2015 in Turkey where it reached the milestone of 400,000 flight hours, becoming the Turkish aircraft with the most flight hours in history” highlights AresDifesa .

The Bayraktar TB2 is 6.5 meters long and has a wingspan of 12 meters. It can stay in the air for up to 24 hours and travels at a maximum speed of 220 kilometers per hour. As SkyNews explains, “it is a guided drone with a ground control station with pilot and observer and uses the power of a 4-cylinder engine. It is approved to carry a load of 150 kg on 4 pylons under the wings, which includes: MAM-L laser-guided mini bombs, UMTAS long-range anti-tank missiles and 70 mm Cirit rockets, all produced by the Turkish company Rocketsan ”.

“The Bayraktar does, in a small way, the job that a 200 million fighter-bomber would do, except that it hides in the basement in the event of a bombing, is transported with a pickup truck and does not need airports,” Corriere della Sera stresses.

THE COST

“Turkey's first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) may not be as cutting-edge as General Atomics' US MQ-9 Reaper or SkyGuardian drones. Yet its appeal lies in its brutally efficient cost-benefit ratio on the battlefield, ”points out Fortune .

In fact, it is estimated that each specimen costs between 1 million and 2 million dollars. According to Reuters , Bayraktar is probably the best-selling drone in the world.

WHAT BAYKAR TECHNOLOGIES DOES

The Turkish company, Baykar Technology, develops and produces the Bayraktar TB2. Founded in 1986, the company has grown to become a Turkish defense giant belonging to the Bayraktar family. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar is the company's chief technology officer.

Since the drone was first exported to Qatar in 2018, the TB-2 has secured trade orders from 16 countries, including Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Tunisia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Poland was the first NATO member to purchase the drone last year, adding 24 to its arsenal.

Thanks to the drone's success, Baykar says it ended up exporting UAVs worth $ 360 million in 2020.

THE COMMENT OF THE EXPERTS

But will these drones really be decisive in the current conflict?

For Wolfgang Richter, a retired German army colonel and military expert at the German Institute for International Affairs and Security (SWP), no. "A drone can only attack one target at a time," he told DW . "That means it can take out tanks or artillery pieces." "If the Ukrainian military had all the drones it ordered, it could inflict casualties on the Russian side but compared to ground combat, the impact of the drone war would be limited," said Richter.

Can Kasapoglu, director of the security and defense studies program at the leading Turkish think tank Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), told Nikkei that the video footage suggests Ukraine is using drones primarily to strike. Russian supply lines to stop their operations.

Kasapoglu noted that with Ukraine's current drone inventory reportedly around 20 units alone cannot stop large armored divisions or brigades.

Finally, “Bayraktar TB2s are slow, large, low-flying and radio-controlled,” said Lauren Kahn, a researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Which makes them relatively easy targets for more sophisticated, multi-tiered air defense systems and electronic warfare capabilities." “Furthermore, TB2's previous successes in Nagorno-Karabakh and Libya were partly due to their use against non-camouflaged and non-dispersed targets and old air defense systems,” concludes Kahn.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/bayraktar-ecco-come-i-droni-della-turchia-difendono-lucraina-contro-la-russia/ on Wed, 09 Mar 2022 14:36:54 +0000.