Baykar Bayraktar family

[3][4] With the concept of short range day and night aerial reconnaissance and surveillance applications, system design activities started in 2004.

An initial prototype Bayraktar Mini A was developed in 2005, and following successful autonomous flight demonstrations, Baykar was awarded a contract to start series production by the Turkish Armed Forces.

[8][9] The development of the aircraft is being continued and the most recent version (Bayraktar MINI D) has twice the communication range and 3 times higher maximum altitude of its predecessors.

In 2009, Kale-Baykar, a joint venture between the Kale Group and Baykar Technologies, demonstrated Block A (named Bayraktar Çaldıran)[13] with its dual redundant avionics system and fully autonomous takeoff and landing capability.

[24][25] Bayraktar Akıncı is the first High-altitude Long Endurance (HALE) class unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) of Baykar.

In February 2021, chairman of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) Ismail Demir made public a new type of UAV being developed by Baykar that is planned to be stationed to Turkey's first drone-carrying amphibious assault ship, TCG Anadolu.

[32] Bayraktar Kızılelma (Red Apple) is a proposed supersonic[33] jet-powered single-engined stealth[34] carrier-capable[35] unmanned combat aircraft in development in 2021, planned to fly for the first time in 2023.

[37] Turkish military use TB-2 gained prominence in counterinsurgency operations against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and People's Protection Units (YPG) positions across the border in Iraq and Syria.

[43][44] Video evidence shows at least one Bayraktar TB2 flying over Tripoli[45] about to land at Mitiga's Military section, under control of GNA-allied forces.

In March 2020 Bayraktar TB2s, Anka-S UAVs and an array of Koral electronic jammers were deployed and extensively used in coordinated action to strike Syrian Army targets on the ground during the Operation Spring Shield launched by Turkey following losses the Turkish forces incurred at the hands of the Russian forces in northwestern Syria at the end February 2020.

[53] Azerbaijan used TB-2s to destroy Armenian artillery, infantry positions and military vehicles including BM-30 Smerch MLRS, T-72s tanks, BMP-1 and BMP-2 IFVs.

[66] Ukrainian Chief of General Staff Valery Zaluzhny made available Bayraktar TB2 operation photographs on his Facebook account, including destruction of a Russian-made Buk Air Defense Missile System.