Turkey’s Baykar to spend $100 million on Ukraine drone production

ANKARA — Turkey’s leading drone maker, Baykar, will invest $100 million for three projects in Ukraine, including a production units for its Bayraktar TB2 attack drone, the company’s top executive said.

In remarks quoted by Ukrinform news agency, company CEO Haluk Bayraktar told Defence Industries Forum in Kyiv earlier this month that the footprint will include a production facility, a service center and a head office. “The construction has already begun,” he said. “It will take about a year and a half to complete. We plan to employ at least 300 people here. Cooperation continues.”

A Baykar official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is no authorized to speak to the media, said top executives view Ukraine as a “long-term, strategic partner rather than just a market.”

He said that building a production unit would absorb much of the planned investment, with plans including an “assembly line, composites and a planned engine unit.”

In Kyiv, Bayraktar said that the envisioned investment would be self-sufficient, eco-friendly and mutually beneficial since Ukraine has unique technologies for producing engines that power Turkish drones.

“We also face some challenges. These are the supply chain, the search and development of human capital through the impact of war and the regulatory environment, especially the rules that will support these investments,” he said.

Baykar started by acquiring land for the production unit in Ukraine. It won permission from the Ukrainian government to produce its TB2 and Akinci drones in the country in June. A month later, the company started constructing the plant.

But in August, Russian missiles struck the facilities of Ukrainian aircraft and engine manufacturer Motor Sich, a company deemed of strategic importance to Turkey’s local industry. Motor Sich had been taken over by the Ukrainian government in November 2022 as part of Kyiv’s war effort. The region housing the company’s headquarters, Zaporizhzhia, is partly occupied by Russian forces.

Motor Sich has strategic ties with the Turkish aerospace industry. The company and its affiliate Ivchenko Progress have been providing the AI-450 engines for Turkey’s most prominent armed drone, the Akinci, and their AI-25TLT for the Kizilelma, an unmanned fighter jet in the making and Anka-3, another combat drone. The Akinci and Kizilelma are built by privately-owned Baykar while the Anka-3 is produced by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). Motor Sich engines also power TAI’s ATAK II, a heavyweight attack helicopter. Talks were underway for a Motor Sich engine to power the T925, TAI’s utility helicopter.

A presidential aide in Ankara ruled out a Russian attack on Baykar’s Ukraine production unit, without elaborating why such a strike is deemed unlikely.

Burak Ege Bekdil was the Turkey correspondent for Defense News.

安卡拉——土耳其领先的无人机制造商Baykar的高管表示，该公司将在乌克兰投资1亿美元用于三个项目，其中包括其Bayraktar TB2攻击无人机的生产部门。

据乌克兰通讯社报道，该公司首席执行官哈鲁克·巴伊拉克塔尔本月初在基辅举行的国防工业论坛上表示，该项目将包括生产设施、服务中心和总部。“建设工作已经开始，”他说，“预计需要一年半左右的时间才能完工。我们计划在这里至少雇用300名员工。合作仍在继续。”

一位不愿透露姓名的 Baykar 官员表示，由于他没有被授权接受媒体采访，因此要求匿名。他表示，公司高管将乌克兰视为“长期战略合作伙伴，而不仅仅是一个市场”。

他表示，建设生产部门将消耗大部分计划投资，计划包括“装配线、复合材料部门和计划中的发动机部门”。

巴伊拉克塔尔在基辅表示，这项设想中的投资将是自给自足、环保且互惠互利的，因为乌克兰拥有生产为土耳其无人机提供动力的发动机的独特技术。

“我们也面临一些挑战。这些挑战包括供应链、受战争影响的人力资本的搜寻和发展，以及监管环境，特别是支持这些投资的规则，”他说道。

Baykar公司首先在乌克兰购置了生产用地。今年6月，该公司获得乌克兰政府许可，在该国生产其TB2和Akinci无人机。一个月后，该公司开始建设工厂。

但今年8月，俄罗斯导弹袭击了乌克兰飞机和发动机制造商马达西奇公司的设施。该公司被认为对土耳其本土工业具有战略意义。马达西奇公司于2022年11月被乌克兰政府接管，这是基辅为应对战争而采取的措施之一。该公司总部所在的扎波罗热地区部分被俄罗斯军队占领。

马达西奇公司与土耳其航空航天工业有着战略联系。该公司及其附属公司伊夫琴科进步公司一直为土耳其最重要的武装无人机“阿金奇”（Akinci）提供AI-450发动机，并为正在研发中的无人战斗机“基济莱尔马”（Kizilelma）和另一款作战无人机“安卡-3”（Anka-3）提供AI-25TLT发动机。“阿金奇”和“基济莱尔马”由私营企业拜卡尔公司（Baykar）制造，而“安卡-3”则由土耳其航空航天工业公司（TAI）生产。马达西奇发动机也为TAI的重型攻击直升机“阿塔克II”（ATAK II）提供动力。此前，双方曾就马达西奇发动机为TAI的通用直升机T925提供动力进行过洽谈。

安卡拉的一位总统助理排除了俄罗斯袭击拜卡尔乌克兰生产基地的可能性，但没有详细说明为什么这种袭击被认为不太可能发生。

布拉克·埃格·贝克迪尔是《防务新闻》的土耳其记者。