AKINCI - ANKARA'S NEW DRONE AND HIGH EXPECTATIONS

 Filenews 21 September 2020

The production of a new drone that flies at a high altitude and has a longer range is being prepared by Turkey, hoping to increase its military power and compensate, albeit minimally, for the loss of the next generation F-35 fighter jets after its confrontation with Washington.

Baykar Makina – a company owned by the family of Seljuk Bayraktar, President Erdogan's youngest son-in-law – announced in late August that the second prototype of a more advanced form of Akinci (Raider) drones has successfully completed the test flights and is ready for production.

With a maximum height of 12 km. and 24 hours of autonomous operation, the Turks believe that the new drone will be immune from air defense systems nearby and will have an operational radius of 600 km.

The maximum take-off weight reaches 4.5 tonnes and the payload capacity is 900-1,350 kg. It will be powered by two Ukrainian Ivchenko-Progress AI-450C turbo engines. Turkey has already imported 12 such engines from Ukraine, its main partner in the field of drone technology.

Some may wonder why a drone is so important that it is rather cumbersome and at a speed of no more than 400 kilometres per hour. Ankara, however, has high expectations of what it can achieve with it. It sees Akinci as the main tool for obtaining information and surveillance of targets, as well as communication control, over the next decade. The drone will be equipped with domestic production systems such as multi-role radar, surveillance system, electronic warfare systems and satellite communications – all of which make Akinci valuable to Ankara.
 

In addition, the drone can be armed with a wide range of air-to-ground munitions, and a Turkish-made SOM-A missile is planned to be included in it, with a range of 250 km. The drone may not be particularly useful in conventional warfare, but it will be against PKK rebels in Iraq and Syria.

Some Turkish analysts claim that Akinci can be equipped with larger domestically built missiles, but this does not yet seem feasible. Ankara plans to acquire six Akinci by early 2021, with Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Qatar and Ukraine interested in buying the drone.

Source: eyenews/in.gr