Turkey Announces New Bayraktar Testing

The Turkish company Baykar announces the successful testing of a new type of Bayraktar UAV (Bayraktar Akıncı). This was reported by Selçuk Bayraktar, the founder of Baykar and the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on his Twitter microblog.

"The Akıncı tests are ongoing. The flight and landing were successfully carried out fully automatically without a ground station," Bayraktar wrote.

The company indicates that prototype versions of the drones are still undergoing testing. The tests are continuing at the Çorlu airbase, with the first ready version of the UAV expected to be presented by the end of 2020.

The Bayraktar Akıncı is a new type of combat drone equipped with a Ukrainian AI-450C turboprop engine. The engine's testing was completed on September 1, 2019, after which it was transferred to the Turkish Air Force for further testing.

The first flight of the Bayraktar Akıncı occurred on December 6, 2019. Following a 16-minute flight, it successfully landed. The drone can remain in the air for no more than 24 hours.