Low-cost armed Turkish drones shaping future warfare: Report

ANKARA

Armed low-cost drones made by Turkey are reshaping battlefields and geopolitics, The Wall Street Journal reported. Armed low-cost drones made by Turkey are reshaping battlefields and geopolitics, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

The report said smaller militaries around the world are deploying inexpensive missile-equipped drones against armored enemies, calling it a “successful” battlefield tactic. 

The Turkish drones are built with affordable digital technology, which the report said wrecked tanks and other armored vehicles as well as air-defense systems in wars in Syria, Libya and Azerbaijan. 

“These drones point to future warfare being shaped as much by cheap but effective fighting vehicles as expensive ones with the most advanced technology,” it said. 

Last July during a virtual gathering of the Air and Space Power Conference, Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace stressed the “game-changing” role of Turkish drones in modern warfare in the Middle East and North Africa. 

“We need to look at the lessons of others. Look how Turkey has been operating in Libya, where it has used Bayraktar TB2 UAVs since mid-2019,” said Wallace at the time. 

In the report, the Bayraktar TB2 is compared with the American MQ-9.

The TB2 is lightly armed with four laser-guided missiles and its radio-controlled apparatus limits its basic range to around 200 miles, roughly a fifth of the ground the MQ-9 can cover, it said. 

“Yet it is utilitarian and reliable, qualities reminiscent of the Soviet Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle that changed warfare in the 20th century,” it added.