Malaysia chooses to buy Turkish drones

ISTANBUL

Türkiye will be selling armed drones to Malaysia, following Turkish Aerospace Inc.’s (TUSAŞ) winning of the southeastern Asian country’s UAV tender, daily Milliyet has reported.

“TUSAŞ has left two Chinese opponent companies behind,” the daily reported on Oct. 18.

According to the report, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein announced the winner of the tender late on Oct. 17.

Pointing out Malaysia’s interest on Chinese UAVs until then, Marhalim Abbas, a Malaysian journalist and expert on defense news, said, “The Chinese drones fell short of Malaysian officials’ expectations.”

Praising the capabilities of the Turkish drones, Abbas hinted that some other countries using Chinese drones “may go with Türkiye,” like Malaysia did.

According to official data, the value of the global armed drone market is around $12 billion and is expected to reach some $30 billion as of 2029.

In the previous months, Chinese TV stations aired news about the success of the Turkish armed drones and hailed Selçuk Bayraktar, the board chair of the Turkish technology firm Baykar, as “Turkish Steve Jobs,” referring to the founder of the Apple mobile phones.

Baykar’s “Bayraktar TB2” drones have been deployed to many nations around the world in various conflicts, such as the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Ukraine War and the Tigray War.

Founded in 1973, TUSAŞ is the center of technology in design, development, manufacturing, integration of aerospace systems, modernization and after sales support in Türkiye.