Bertan Kurt, Head of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), recently answered questions about the company’s export operations during the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA 2023) in Malaysia.
Bertan Kurt stated that the company, which has had a consistent growth plan since 2018, received one billion dollars in orders last year with the introduction of its original products to the market, and has signed contracts totaling 3.3 billion dollars with 13 countries in the last five years.
The details of the orders were provided by the Corporate Marketing manager in the statement’s continuation. According to Kurt, ANKA UAVs were sold to 6 countries, AKSUNGUR UAVs to 2 countries, ATAK helicopters to 3 countries, HÜRKUŞ basic training and light attack aircraft to 2 countries, and ŞİMŞEK (High Speed Target Aircraft System) to 1 country, with some deliveries completed.
Among the systems delivered were four ATAK helicopters to the Philippines, three ANKA drones to Kazakhstan, two AKSUNGUR drones to Kyrgyzstan, three HÜRKUŞ aircraft and two ANKA drones to Chad, two HÜRKUŞ aircraft to Niger, and five ANKA drones to Tunisia. Although most of the information provided by Bertan Kurt had previously been made public by the company or the countries who placed the purchase, it was the first time that a senior official verified that Tunisia ordered and received additional Anka drone systems.
As previously reported, bilateral negotiations for the procurement of ANKA Unmanned Aerial Vehicles began in 2019 between the Tunisian Ministry of Defense and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). Following the start of the process, UAV training and financing issues were clarified in the first months of 2020, and progress was made in the negotiations, until TAI surpassed its competitors from the United States, France, Italy, and China, and an export agreement worth approximately $80 million was signed with the Tunisian Air Force.
The contract in question involved the supply of three ANKA-S unmanned aerial vehicles and three ground control stations to the Tunisian Air Force, as well as the training of 52 Tunisian pilots and maintenance personnel. The training of Tunisian Air Force maintenance personnel was finished in May 2021, and the company delivered the first two ANKA drones to the Tunisian Air Force in the second half of 2021. The third drone is thought to have been delivered to Tunisia in 2022.
Throughout this process, claims that Tunisia wanted to acquire a large number of additional ANKA UAVs and that negotiations for the transfer of technology between the two countries were ongoing were regularly discussed in both countries’ local press.
TAI Deputy General Manager for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Ömer Yıldız announced in an interview with Defence Turkey during the SAHA EXPO 2022 Fair in Istanbul in October last year that negotiations with Tunisia on the sale of an additional two ANKA drones were ongoing, and that the additional aircraft would be of the same configuration as the previous three aircraft.
The additional order was verified by Bertan Kurt, TAI’s Head of Corporate Marketing and Communications, months after this announcement, bringing the total number of ANKA-S UAVs delivered to Tunisia to 5.
Source: Overt Defense