The guerrillas have shot down a state-of-the-art Turkish Bayraktar TB2 killer drone. The guerrillas have now released footage of the drone taken down from the sky on May 21. The debris fell in Zêbarî in the border area between the regions of Zap and Gare in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). For security reasons, the guerrillas do not provide details on the method of the downing. The guerrillas also repeatedly repel helicopter attacks with heavy weapons. The massive destruction of the drone indicates a heavy hit.

 

Killer drones are the backbone of Turkish war policy

The Turkish army had launched a major operation to occupy the Zap, Avaşîn and Metîna regions in Medya Defense Zones on the night of April 23. Although the Turkish army is deploying thousands of mercenaries and soldiers, it is not making any progress on the ground. Therefore, similar to fighter jets, the TB2 forms the backbone of the Turkish army. Drone warfare has become the specialty of the Turkish army. Drones also played an important role in the war against Armenia during the occupation of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) region. Turkey sells Bayraktar drones to Qatar, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, among others.

Drone of "regional production”

The Bayraktar TB2 drones are produced by the company of the son-in-law of Turkish dictator Erdoğan, Selçuk Bayraktar, the Baykar Group. The state-of-the-art weapon was added to the Turkish Army's arsenal in 2014. A drone was used for the war against the Kurdish freedom movement, which was relaunched in 2015. In a propaganda campaign, a drone was even "hand-signed" by Erdoğan himself. The drone was the occasion for nationalist propaganda, as the regime circulated that it was a drone of "national production." However, large parts of the allegedly homemade drones come mainly from Germany. Canada has only recently imposed a ban on the export of parts important for the drone.

One of 174 killer drones destroyed

The number of such drones in the Turkish military is officially 107, and 174 according to independent foreign institutions. For one of these drones, the state pays the price of four million euros to the Baykar Group. In November 2020 alone, 47 million euros were paid for twelve "Bayraktar TB2" drones.

Fully autonomous killing machines

The drone has a wingspan of 12 meters and a length of 6.5 meters. It can stay in the air for up to 27 hours without a break and climb over 9,000 meters. There is no need to control the fully autonomous drone. With the TB2, Turkey became one of the largest drone manufacturers in the world. The drone can be armed with up to four MAM-L (22 kg) and MAM-C (2.5 kg) laser-guided mini-bombs, as seen on the video, or with the L-UMTAS missile (37.5 kg). The technology for the warheads of these drones comes from Germany.

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