Turkish drones succeed in daring missions: Bayraktar

A Turkish Bayraktar Akinci drone undertook a daring mission earlier this week as it joined efforts to locate the helicopter carrying late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, successfully locating the crash site.

The unmanned aerial vehicle's (UAV) performance highlighted the significant strides Türkiye's defence industry has taken, according to the technology chief of Baykar, the company that made the drone.

Selcuk Bayraktar, chairperson of Baykar's Board of Directors and its chief technology officer, said on Tuesday the drone, developed by Turkish engineers, went to places where no aircraft would venture under normal circumstances through the mountains and valleys of northwestern Iran during the search and rescue mission.

Speaking at the Health Sciences and Technology Summit held at the Bezmialem Vakif University on Tuesday, Bayraktar delivered a presentation on the development process of Baykar's UAVs.

He said the Akinci, which took part in the search mission after the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Raisi and his accompanying officials, made its first flight in 2019.

The UAV on Monday identified a source of heat early Monday suspected to be the wreckage of the helicopter carrying Raisi and shared its coordinates with Iranian authorities. Iranian officials later confirmed the loss of all occupants, including President Raisi.

'World's best'

Noting that Baykar had developed drones that would be "the world's best in its class" in 15 years, Bayraktar said the company's TB2 drones had become "the unmanned aerial vehicle that has been exported to the most countries in the world and provides the highest performance at the lowest cost."

He stated that they developed all projects within Baykar with their own resources and said: "Such a technology company does not exist in Türkiye or in the rest of the world," he said, pointing to Baykar's innovative approach.

"The Bayraktar KIZILELMA made its first flight in 2022, approximately a year earlier than we promised our nation," he added, referring to the company's fighter drone.

"We will start flying the production prototypes and versions in about one to two months. We will have produced the KIZILELMAs this year and final integration efforts will continue in the coming years," Bayraktar said.

Role of Turkish Akinci drone

Italian media on Tuesday highlighted the role of the Turkish Akinci drone in finding the crash site of the helicopter that was carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

The Corriere Della Sera, one of the most-read newspapers in Italy said in a headline: "Turkish aid revealed the limits of Iranian regime's capabilities."

It highlighted that Akinci is a Turkish word for an Ottoman raider who carried out swift reconnaissance and raid missions in the depth of enemy territory, and said the Turkish drone, which took off from an airbase in the southeastern province of Batman flew more than seven hours looking for the chopper.

Iranians, who can develop long-range ballistic missiles and a nuclear program, were forced to use Turkish aid to find the president and other officials in a mountainous region of East Azerbaijan province.

The AGI news agency said Iranian search and rescue teams were directed to the crash site only after the Akinci drone located it.

Raisi, the eighth Iranian president since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, served as custodian of the Imam Reza shrine for years before becoming the country's judiciary chief in 2019 and president in 2021.

After a nightlong search operation hampered by bad weather, Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other top officials were declared dead early Monday.

Dozens of emergency rescue teams were dispatched where the accident occurred Sunday.

Mohammad Mokhber, who is the first vice president, will assume powers of the presidency until new elections are held, according to the Iranian Constitution.