Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a visit to the Özdemir Bayraktar National Technology Center (Baykar) in Istanbul.

Erdoğan posed for a photo in front of the Bayraktar KIZILELMA Fighter UAV and Bayraktar TB3 UCAV during the visit.

Baykar is a private Turkish defense company specializing in UAVs, C4I, and artificial intelligence.

The company was founded in 1984 as Baykar Makina, a CNC precision machining supplier subcontractor by Özdemir Bayraktar, with the primary goals being the production of automotive parts such as engines, pumps, and spare parts to ensure the localization of the automotive industry.

It took steps towards producing unmanned aerial vehicles in the 2000s in line with the developments and progress in the aviation sector.

Bayraktar Mini UAV was the first unmanned aerial system produced entirely with domestic capital, included in the Turkish Armed Forces inventory in 2007.

Having launched R&D activities for this purpose, Baykar has realized pioneering productions in its field and by producing subsystems, it has achieved to provide technical support to the Turkish national defense industry, as the latter has grown and started exporting weapons including Baykar drones.

Baykar's portfolio of advanced UAVs includes Bayraktar Tactical UAS (Bayraktar TB1), Bayraktar TB2 UCAV, Bayraktar Akıncı UCAV.

In 2021, the Ukrainian military for the first time in the War in Donbas used a Bayraktar strike drone, Bayraktar TB2.

In June 2022, the "People's Bayraktar" fundraising project was launched in Ukraine, which managed to fundraise in three over UAH 600 million to purchase three Bayraktar TB2. (ILKHA)

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