Turkey’s drone magnate Baykar has signed a contract with the Ivchenko-Progress, one of the leading engine companies in Ukraine for the procurement of engines for its Combat Unmanned Aircraft System (MIUS) project, according to a company statement Friday.

Turkey’s drone magnate Baykar will soon test-fly two new unmanned aircraft that will further extend the country’s capabilities from land-based to naval operations, its CEO said Wednesday.

The Turkish military Sunday received a delivery of the most advanced and sophisticated drone built by the country to date, enlarging a fleet that has already proved its success in the field.

Turkish drone magnate Baykar is in the contract phase with about 10 countries, the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Selçuk Bayraktar, said on Wednesday.

Turkey’s latest cutting-edge combat drone has set a new national aviation record, the head of the country’s top defense body said Thursday.

In January 2001, a Predator launched an inert Hellfire missile at a dummy tank, marking the first successful missile test from a drone. Twenty years on, drones have become a feature of warfare to an extent that few at the time likely could have imagined. Over 100 militaries have some level of armed or unarmed drone capability, and a growing number have experience using these systems in combat. The notion of what an armed drone looks like and how it should perform has also shifted as the families of drones and drone munitions have become lighter and more diverse. This is fueling a wider adoption of these systems, potentially complicating the United States’ ability to develop effective countermeasures.

Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 without firing a single shot, former Soviet States in the area – particularly the Baltic countries – have been increasingly worried by the idea they could be ‘the next’ target of an hybrid war operated from Moscow with some form of occupation as their objective. At the same time, the Kremlin and several Russian experts have been underlining the danger of an externally-directed non-linear war aimed at weakening Russia’s sovereignty and eventually staging a regime change: the spectre of a ‘coloured revolution’ orchestrated by the West has been for years a postulate of actions taken by the Russian authorities to discourage public mobilization and ultimately repressing protests. Both theories can be sustained or denied, in the framework of a largely hypothetical and undefined picture where many assumptions are taken for granted and few elements can be concretely verified.

Milanion is showcasing the company’s upgraded AGEMA UGV (unmanned ground vehicle) at the Arms and Security 21 trade show, which is being held in Kyiv, Ukraine, from 15 – 18 June.

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