Bayraktar Akıncı

Bayraktar Akıncı is a high-altitude long-endurance unmanned combat aircraft built by Baykar , the Istanbul-based manufacturer that earlier turned the smaller Bayraktar TB2 into Türkiye’s signature drone export. Akıncı entered service with the Turkish Armed Forces in August 2021 and was conceived from the start as a manned-fighter substitute for missions a tactical UCAV like the TB2 cannot carry — strategic strike, stand-off cruise-missile delivery, persistent intelligence collection at jet-fighter altitudes, and, increasingly, air-to-air engagements.

The airframe is much larger than the TB2, with a 20-metre wingspan, a maximum take-off weight close to 5,500 kg, and a payload of roughly 1,500 kg split between internal and external stations. Power has been offered in three configurations: twin Ukrainian Ivchenko-Progress AI-450T turboprops on the baseline Akıncı-A, more powerful AI-450Ts on the Akıncı-B, and AI-322F turbofans on the Akıncı-C, which pushes the ceiling toward 40,000 ft and adds genuine high-subsonic speed. Sensor fit centres on Aselsan’s CATS electro-optical turret and a domestically developed AESA radar (the MURAD-class set), with satellite-communications relay extending control well beyond line of sight. Munitions integration is broad: MAM-L and MAM-T glide bombs, Roketsan’s L-UMTAS and Cirit, the SOM-A turbojet cruise missile (a first for any operational UCAV), the longer-range Çakır cruise missile, and — uniquely so far — Tübitak-Sage’s Bozdoğan and Gökdoğan air-to-air missiles, which Akıncı test-fired against an aerial target in 2023.

Türkiye is by far the largest operator, with the system fielded in numbers across multiple squadrons. Pakistan signed for Akıncı in 2022 and has since taken delivery, while Azerbaijan has fielded the type in its post-2020 force build-up; further export contracts have been announced with Libya, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Bangladesh. The Turkish fleet has been used in counter-PKK strikes inside northern Iraq and Syria, and Akıncı famously flew the maiden firing of the SOM-A from an unmanned aircraft. It has also performed long over-water surveillance flights in the eastern Mediterranean.

Development continues to layer on weapons and a heavier engine; Baykar has pitched the platform as a low-cost analogue to the General Atomics MQ-9B and a step toward the company’s stealthy Kızılelma jet-powered UCAV. In the export market it sits in the same bracket as the Chinese Wing Loong II and CH-5, and it has won most of the contests it has entered against them — a pattern that has made Akıncı, alongside the TB2, the second pillar of Türkiye’s drone diplomacy.