Baykar Releases The First Images Of The Bayraktar TB3 With Foldable Wings
Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shared a photo of himself in front of the Bayraktar Kızılelma Unmanned Combat Aircraft developed by Baykar at the Özdemir Bayraktar National Technology Center, which he visited, on his social media account. The first prototype of BAYKAR’s new UCAV, Bayraktar TB3, was also shown in the photo behind the Bayraktar Kızılelma Unmanned Combat Aircraft. The clearest images of the Bayraktar TB3 were officially published for the first time in a social media post by BAYKAR CTO Selçuk Bayraktar, hours after Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s post. “The images of the ‘fish’, the first of its kind with the ability to fold its wings, appearing on the production line in the photos we shared today, taken before Ramadan. After its elder brother Kızılelma, it is counting the days until its first flight.”
The Bayraktar TB3 prototype, whose assembly activities are seen to be largely completed in the images, will be publicly displayed for the first time at TEKNOFEST, which will be held in Istanbul from April 27 to May 1, 2023. According to İsmail Demir, President of the Turkish Defense Industry Agency, and Haluk Bayraktar, General Manager of Baykar, the Bayraktar TB3, which is expected to fly in 2023, will enter mass production at the end of 2023, following the completion of taxi, first flight, and STOBAR type landing and take-off tests in the first half of this year.
Selçuk Bayraktar announced the Bayraktar TB3, a drone with foldable wings and short-range landing-take-off features, to the public for the first time on October 29, 2020, with a social media post. The technical features of the Bayraktar TB3, developed for the TCG Anadolu Amphibious Assault Ship scheduled to be delivered to the Turkish Navy on April 8, 2023, were first announced at TEKNOFEST 2021 by BAYKAR CTO Selçuk Bayraktar. Turkey, which began work on the amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu to deploy the vertical take-off Lockheed Martin F-35B, decided to convert this ship into a drone carrier, in addition to the deployment of aircraft and helicopters, after it was excluded from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program. Depending on the configuration, 50 to 110 Bayraktar TB3s can be deployed to the TCG Anadolu, Turkey’s largest warship, according to İsmail Demir, head of the Turkish Defense Industry Agency. It is also stated that with the command center integrated into the Anadolu, at least ten Bayraktar TB3s can be used in operations simultaneously.
The Bayraktar TB3, with its foldable wing structure designed for use on helicopter carriers and aircraft carriers, will be capable of offensive operations with smart munitions deployed under its wings, as well as reconnaissance-surveillance and intelligence missions. The Bayraktar TB3, with a maximum take-off weight of 1450 kilograms and a payload capacity of 280 kilograms, will be able to be controlled from very long distances due to its Line-Of-Sight and Beyond-Line-Of-Sight communication capabilities, according to Baykar. The Bayraktar TB3 is larger than the Bayraktar TB2 but smaller than the Bayraktar Akıncı, with a 14-meter wingspan, 8.35-meter length, and 2.6-meter height. The vehicle, which will be powered by the TEI PD170 turbodiesel engine developed by TUSAŞ Engine Industries (TEI), will be able to reach a maximum TAS cruising speed of 125 knots-160 knots and stay in the air for 24 hours.