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Friday May 9 2025

Bayraktar TB2T-AI sets new high-altitude benchmark in Keşan test flight

8 May 2025 19:50 (UTC+04:00)
Bayraktar TB2T-AI sets new high-altitude benchmark in Keşan test flight

Baykar made a statement and noted that the Bayraktar TB2T-AI, developed nationally and originally by Baykar, achieved another success in its testing activities.

Equipped with a turbo engine and superior artificial intelligence systems, the national SİHA broke its own record by reaching an altitude of 37,096 feet in the test flight held in Keşan.

Bayraktar TB2T-AI has demonstrated its ability to climb above 30 thousand feet in a very short time thanks to its powerful turbo engine. The new-generation SİHA climbed to 30,318 feet in the flight test conducted on February 21, 2025. Reaching 37,096 feet in the ongoing flight tests in Keşan, the national SİHA demonstrated its ability to perform long-term missions at high altitude.

The national SİHA has registered its high-altitude performance with this record. Bayraktar TB2T-AI, which has the ability to climb much faster and stay at high altitude for a long time compared to existing SİHAs, continues to be a critical power element supporting air superiority with its speed of over 160 knots (300 km/h). It is designed to serve longer and more effectively on the battlefield with its increased take-off weight and payload capacity.

Bayraktar TB2T-AI SİHA offers superior autonomous capabilities in air combat with its three new-generation artificial intelligence computers integrated into its body.

The new-generation national SİHA has also gained the ability to perform terrain-referenced visual navigation in the most challenging electronic warfare environments. Thanks to advanced artificial intelligence systems, it can recognize terrain and determine direction through visual navigation. It can analyze targets, detect, and diagnose them. It can perform autonomous landings and takeoffs by visually recognizing runways. It can determine the most suitable flight routes through dynamic route planning.

The national SİHA flies with the ability to overcome all kinds of difficult conditions. Thanks to its artificial intelligence-supported systems, the ability to automatically return to base safely in emergencies in the sky also maximizes operational safety at this new altitude level.

Bayraktar TB2 SİHAs, which entered the inventory in 2014, were produced with a 93% local content rate and are operating all over the world. They successfully surpassed 1 million hours of flight time in December 2024. Thus, Bayraktar TB2 became the national aircraft that has stayed in the sky for the longest time in Turkish aviation history. Bayraktar TB2 SİHAs are operating within the Turkish Armed Forces, the National Intelligence Organization, the Gendarmerie General Command, the General Directorate of Security, the Coast Guard Command, and the General Directorate of Forestry for the purpose of combating forest fires.

Bayraktar TB2 broke another record by flying continuously for 27 hours and 3 minutes in difficult geographical and climatic conditions such as high temperatures and sandstorms during its demo flight in Kuwait on July 16, 2019.
The national SİHA Bayraktar TB2, which has made its mark on the history of Turkish aviation, made history as the first and only SİHA in the world to successfully perform the autonomous barrel roll maneuver, one of the important escape maneuvers of fighter jets, during the test flights conducted on May 31, 2024. Bayraktar TB2 achieved another first in world aviation history by performing the autonomous spin recovery maneuver in the test conducted on April 9, 2025.

Bayraktar TB2 SİHAs have proven themselves with their superior performance in the international operations they have participated in, as well as the critical roles they have played in Türkiye's fight against terrorism. Operating in every corner of the world, the National SİHAs have played a key role in the wars in Libya, Ukraine, Mali, Burkina Faso, as well as in ending the 30-year Karabakh occupation.

Bayraktar TB2 UAVs have managed to enter the inventories of countries following competitive processes in many parts of the world. Bayraktar TB2, which won the competitive process conducted by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense in 2023, left its American, European, and Chinese competitors behind and signed an important export contract. This success strengthened Baykar's influence on a global scale, while further strengthening its presence in NATO and EU countries in 2024. Thanks to the agreement signed with Croatia on November 19, 2024, Bayraktar TB2 entered the inventories of 6 NATO member countries and 4 EU member countries.

In addition to security duties, national SİHAs also play an active role in civilian duties such as disaster response to earthquakes and floods, search and rescue operations, tracking irregular migration, and combating forest fires.
Bayraktar TB2 UAVs, which took part in the 6.8 magnitude earthquake centered in Sivrice, Elazığ, on January 24, 2020, flew for 2,417 hours and 6 minutes in the earthquake centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023. In this context, a total of 42 Bayraktar TB2s, 8 of which were integrated with the Baykar Fast Mapping Pod, participated. In the scope of combating forest fires, 4,091 fires were detected by Bayraktar TB2 UAVs at the first moment between 2020 and 2024 and were extinguished before they grew larger.

Baykar, which has carried out all its projects with its own resources since the beginning of the UAV R&D process in 2003, has obtained 83 percent of all its revenues from exports. Baykar, which exported 1.8 billion dollars in 2023, was among the top 10 companies in Türkiye that exported the most in all sectors. Baykar, the largest company in the world unmanned aerial vehicle export market, continued its success on a global scale in 2024 and achieved 1.8 billion dollars in exports, obtaining 90 percent of its revenues from exports.

Baykar, which received the Champions of Export Award, became the export leader of the defense and aviation sector in 2021, 2022, and 2023 according to the data of the Presidency of Defense Industries and the Turkish Exporters Assembly. Baykar, which made one-third of the sector's exports in 2023, made one-fourth of the total exports of the defense and aviation sector in 2024, and carried Türkiye to the leading position in the global UAV export market.

97.5 percent of the contracts signed by Baykar, the world's largest unmanned aerial vehicle company, are export-based. Export agreements have been signed with 34 countries for the Bayraktar TB2 SİHA and with 11 countries for the Bayraktar AKINCI TİHA.

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