Baykar Technologies CTO Selcuk Bayraktar shared pictures of the manufacturer’s carrier-based combat drone, the Bayraktar TB3, on the production line.
The photos were shared following the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Özdemir Bayraktar National Technology Center on March 26, 2023.
The Bayraktar TB3 is a carrier-capable armed unmanned aerial vehicle system and, as such, was designed with foldable wings. Slightly larger than its land-based predecessor, the Bayraktar TB2, the TB3 will also offer an increased payload capacity of up to 280 kilograms.
The unmanned aircraft was first announced in October 2020 and is planned to operate from the TCG Anadolu amphibious assault ship eventually.
The TB3 should fly alongside the Bayraktar Kizilelma, a carrier-capable “unmanned fighter jet.”
“Counting the days to [the TB3’s] first flight after its big brother Kizilelma,” Selcuk Bayraktar said in his tweet.
The Bayraktar Kizilelma combat drone completed its first flight at the Akinci Flight Training and Test Center in Corlu, northwestern Turkey, on December 14, 2022.
With a 1,500-kilogram payload capacity, the Kizilelma is planned to be capable of conducting air-to-ground and air-to-air missions.
The TCG Anadolu was initially expected to carry US-made F-35B fighters before Turkey’s exclusion from the Joint Strike Fighter program for acquiring Russian S-400 missile systems.