Indonesia, Chad and Algeria To Procure ANKA UAVs From TAI
TAI signed contracts with Indonesia, Chad, and Algeria for the export of ANKA UAVs at the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX 2023) held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC), according to information obtained from defense sources by the Turkish defense industry news platform SavunmaSanayiiST. The report stated that Indonesia ordered 12, Algeria ordered 10, and Chad ordered two Anka drones from TAI, but no further details about the contracts were provided. The total cost of the three countries’ order for 24 Anka drones is estimated to be more than $500 million.
With the new contracts, the number of countries to which Anka UAV has been exported has increased to six. Tunisia was Anka’s first export customer. TAI supplied the Tunisian Air Force with three Anka drones and three ground control stations in 2020. Kazakhstan was Anka’s second export client. TAI disclosed in a statement at the time that Kazakhstan would receive three Anka UAVs and two ground control systems by 2023. In 2022, the company also signed an agreement with Kazakhstan Engineering to manufacture Anka UAVs in Kazakhstan. As a result, Kazakhstan became the first Anka drone manufacturing base outside of Turkey.
Kyrgyzstan, which had previously acquired Aksungur, Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı drones from Turkey, was revealed as ANKA’s third export customer in January in a statement made by the country’s Presidential Administration Information Policy Service President Daiyrbek Orunbekov on his social media account. Kyrgyzstan now has all of the types of UAVs produced by TAI and Baykar, thanks to the recent purchase of ANKA drones. Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, on the other hand, announced last year that the country had also decided to purchase TAI’s Anka drones. According to a statement issued at the time by Malaysia’s Defense Minister, “the government has decided to sign a contract with Turkish Aerospace Industries for the supply of three (3) Male-UAS units.” Following Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia, Malaysia is expected to be the fourth Asian country to sign a contract for the procurement of Anka drones at the LAAD Defense and Security Expo in Rio de Janeiro in April.
According to TAI, the ANKA has a length of 8.6 meters, a wingspan of 17.5 meters, a maximum takeoff weight of 1,600 kilograms, and a useful load capacity of 350 kilograms. The ANKA-S can reach a top speed of 117 knots (217 km/h) thanks to the TEI production PD-170 170 horsepower piston turbo diesel engine with three-blade propellers, which has a total output of 340 horsepower. The UAV has a maximum altitude of 30,000 feet and a flight time of 30 hours. It is intended for day and night reconnaissance, surveillance, fixed/moving target detection, identification, tracking, and elimination, as well as real-time image intelligence missions. The ANKA-S UAV is outfitted with the Aselsan CATS (Common Aperture Targeting System), FLIR System, and a flight control computer produced domestically in Turkey. Four Roketsan MAM-L Laser Guided Munitions can be carried by ANKA drones, which can detect targets and perform laser marking thanks to the CATS electro-optical reconnaissance, surveillance, and targeting system.