Bayraktar TB2

Uh, the 2020 war was actually led by a Turkish general named Bakhtiyar Erse, who actually took off his, uh, Turkish military uniform and put on an Azeri uni- military uniform to actually run the war as the chief operating officer of the Azeri army.

Uh, the Bayraktar drones, which played a very key role, uh, in the war, were entirely operated by Turkish operators, and we have proof of this because years after the war, they finally announced that they have Azeri operators, which means that during the war they were obviously being run by Turkish military personnel.

Uh, it's well known that Turkish, uh, special forces commanders actually led, uh, Azeri special forces into war.

Uh, furthermore, Hakan Fidan, who's the current foreign minister and former, uh, intelligence minister for, uh, Turkey, actually ran, um, laundered thousands of Syrian mercenaries tied to the Sadat group, which is sort of the Erdogan's version of the Wagner group, to fight in Artsakh.

It just looked a bit different.

First, it seemed the Turkish-produced Bayraktar TB2 might carry the day.

Capable of staying aloft for up to 27 hours, carrying a payload of up to 330 pounds or 150 kilograms, these weren't cheap, as Ukraine purchased six of the drones along with three control stations in 2019 for about $69 million.

It was worth the investment initially.

If an advanced but unclassified surveillance platform had been deployed along Turkey's coast that night, his video would be the only civilian record available, given the secrecy often surrounding such operations.

Looking at Turkey's aerospace landscape during those years, particularly the emergence of indigenous UAV platforms like the Bayraktar TB2 and the Anka family, it seems plausible that experimental prototypes might have flown low over coastal waters to test flight characteristics.

If a domestic UAV had been used in secret, the light signature would likely be more complex.

LEDs on landing gear or propulsion systems usually give off characteristic patterns or glints, yet Yalman's footage shows relatively uniform luminance across each object.

And let's talk about that.

Their drones, the TB2, which have been used in Libya, Ukraine, other conflicts around the world, very capable airframe.

They can provide this to Saudi Arabia for all sorts of missions that don't put Turkish lives at risk and do provide material support to Saudi Arabia.

Now you have to ask if Turkish drones are being used directly in the war with Yemen.

You know, they interfered in Libya on the side that, you know, was, you know, uh, allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, uh, the Western Libyan government against the Eastern Libyan government, and in Sudan it's the same thing.

They immediately intervened, and they gave, uh, Bayraktar and Akıncı drones, um, uh, to the Sudanese, uh, armed forces, uh, for the purpose of like, I mean, well, I mean, pushing back against the RSF.

Uh, so Turkey, uh, was involved, and who supply, who actually financed the Turkish armament shipments, uh, you know, to the Sudanese?

Qatar.

Off-the-shelf commercial drones modified for reconnaissance and strike missions proved effective at a scale no defense analysis had fully anticipated.

The Bayraktar TB2, the first-person view strike drones, the loitering munitions, all of it changed the calculus.

That lesson has not been lost on the United States Department of Defense or on the governments of every North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally.

Budget lines for unmanned systems have increased substantially, and the demand signal from the warfighter community is unambiguous.

I'll give you an example, Nagorno-Karabakh 2020.

The Turkish Bayraktar TB2 combined with Israeli drones proved decisive in that war, right? That's a fair assessment.

Ukraine procured 48 TB2 Bayraktars.

They played a role in the first two weeks of the Russia-Ukraine war, and then the bulk of them were shot down shortly afterwards.

It was terrible.

The Bayraktars, the Turkish drones were devastating the mountains.

And They had high casualty rate, high attrition rate.

They could not resupply.