Turkey joined handful of countries capable of developing an armed drone, with the successful testing of an air to ground munitions from ...
Turkey joined handful of countries capable of developing an armed drone, with the successful testing of an air to ground munitions from its indigenous Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aircraft system on Thursday.
Bayraktar TB2 flying at 16000 ft, successfully engaged a ground target with a Roketsan UMTAS long range anti tank missile from 8 km.
The Bayraktar can be armed with two UMTAS missiles, weighing 37.5 kg each on its each under wing pylons.The laser guided UMTAS has an range of 8 km and is effective against an 160 mm armour.
Bayraktar has a blended wing body design with its inverse V-Tail structure. The fuselage extensively uses carbon fiber composites.
The Medium Altitude and Long Endurance (MALE) class UAV has a wingspan of 12 m and 650 kg maximum take off weight, and can fly up to 22,500 feet and loiter for more than 24 hours.
The Bayraktar is powered by a single Rotax 912 piston engine rated at 100 hp in pusher configuration. First flown in 2009, the drone is operational with Turkish armed forces.
Bayraktar is developed by the Kale-Baykar joint venture between the Kale Group and Baykar Technologies. Bayraktar has set a record for autonomous flight endurance when it flew 24 hours and 34 minutes at 18,000 feet on 5 August 2014.
Other countries who have developed armed drone include U.S., Israel, China, Iran and South Africa.
