Armed drones in Turkey: son-in-law Erdogan Selcuk Bayraktar, TB2 planes at war

Photographer: Burak Milli / Anadolu Agency through Getty Images

Last year, Selcuk Bayraktar helped spark conflicts in Libya and Azerbaijan, thousands of kilometers from his home in Turkey.

A former MIT research student married to the younger daughter of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Bayraktar was instrumental in Turkey’s emergence as a manufacturer of armed drones. In 2020, his Baykar’s TB2 drones were used with devastating effect by the governments of Tripoli and Baku, both Turkish allies.

The 41-year-old, whose family name means “standard bearer”, shares Erdogan’s ambition to make Turkey’s projection of military power more self-sufficient. They lead a set of house features that create Ankara in new uneasy alliances and convulsive ties with traditional NATO partners.

“Our aircraft are admired all over the world,” Erdogan said in January. “Turkish armed UAVs are changing the methods of warfare and have changed the trend of the war in Libya.” He later confiscated data showing seven Turkish defense companies in the top 100 in the world, up from two in 2016.

And Bayraktar likes to wrap himself in the flag. When some Turks stressed his privileged position and Baykar’s use of imported parts, including engines, he posted on Twitter that the drones “are not the groom’s” but the nation’s and “will fly whether you want to or not!” The components of the planes, he said, are 93% made in Turkey. Baykar did not respond to an email requesting comments.

Mapping the extended footprint of the Turkish army: QuickTake

The intention is unmistakable, but also the risks. Turkey’s foreign interventionist policy and anything that should pursue elite military technology could leave Ankara in a no-man’s-land transaction.

The US sanctioned Turkey and blocked it from Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 aircraft program. for the purchase of a Russian missile system, an agreement that Turkey hopes will include technology transfer. British and Canadian companies stopped supplying drone components once concerns arose about how and where the planes were used.

Turkish engineers are struggling to develop internal tank engines, as well as the experimental TF-X fighter after delays in a deal with Britain’s Rolls-Royce, but it is an expensive business with no guarantee of early success.

“Turkey is fast becoming a market leader and an emerging power in lethal drone technology,” he said. Raluca Csernatoni, visiting scientist at Carnegie Europe. “This is part of a broader and ongoing effort to develop a self-sufficient defense industry and President Erdogan’s stated ambition to reduce Turkey’s dependence on foreign arms systems. However, this is easier said than done, “she said, citing Canada’s decision to withdraw from cooperation.

Understanding the feuds affecting the US-Turkey alliance: QuickTake

Erdogan has restricted the influence of generals in defense procurement, taking direct control of the public procurement agency and aligning it with business close to the government. The change has created jobs and boosted military exports, which last year exceeded $ 2 billion, driven by armored vehicles and ships. In the drone market, Turkey remains a minor player compared to the USA, China and Israel.

In the last two decades, only the United Arab Emirates has grown higher in the table of arms suppliers compiled by SIPRI, which investigates global arms spending. Turkey’s overall spending on defense equipment rose sharply, but imports fell by 59% from 2016 to 2020 compared to the previous five-year period. This includes suspended F-35 deliveries.

Turkish drones – Baykar competes with Turkey Aerospace Industries Inc. – also stopped a major advance by Russian-backed government forces in Syria last year.

It was the kind of operation that aroused the pride of politicians and nationalist voters who gathered behind the president.

They bitterly remember a US arms embargo imposed after Turkey captured the northern third of Cyprus in 1974, as well as the 2015 back-and-forth decisions of the US and Germany to withdraw air defenses. The cuts, which came as Turkey and a US-led coalition prepared for joint airstrikes against the Islamic State, shocked Ankara, which considered it a punishment for crackdown on Kurdish separatists who reacted to the failed peace efforts by attacks. .

In the once-friendly Western capitals, Turkey’s stock has fallen further as the war in Syria, migration, human rights and the aftermath of a failed 2016 coup have severed ties.

Turkish leaders are increasingly insisting that traditional allies are no longer behind the country. The conviction is behind attempts at defense cooperation with Russia and Pakistan, despite threats from US sanctions that regularly sent Turkish markets and contributed to a currency crisis in 2018.