The Bayraktar AKINCI, an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) indigenously developed by Turkey, hits a new milestone by hitting a sea target using a TEBER MK-82 guidance kit.
The latter, developed by the Turkish manufacturer Roketsan, converts a regular gravity bomb into a more precise laser-guided or GPS-guided munition.
The AKINCI dropped the TEBER-82 bomb from an altitude of 20,000 feet (6 kilometers) onto a floating target.
The latest model from the Turkish drone maker Baykar Technologies is a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) combat drone powered by two turboprop engines. It is reportedly capable of deploying a payload of 1,350 kilograms (2,980 pounds), spread between 400 kilograms (880 pounds) in the internal weapons bay and 950 kilograms (2,090 pounds) on external hardpoints.
After years of quasi-monopoly by the US-based manufacturer General Atomics and its Reaper and Predator armed drones, Turkish dronemaker Baykar Technologies disrupted the market with its Bayraktar TB2. The armed drone illustrated itself during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
