According to the Baykar website, the TB2 UAV can fly up to 138 miles per hour and can carry four smart munitions, or up to 330 pounds. It can also carry an ISR payload. The drone is about 39 feet long with a wingspan of 21 feet with an operational altitude is 18,000 feet. It has also notably seen real-world action, providing a sense of what its capabilities and drawbacks are on the battlefield, Breaking Defense reported.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s embassy in Turkey posted a video that showed what it said was the aftermath of a drone strike on a Russian military convoy near Kherson where forces entered from the Crimea Peninsula.
The footage shows a line of burnt-out vehicles with debris strewn about after it came under fire from Turkish-made TB-2 armed drones used by Ukraine’s air force.
Anither footage was published by Turkey Bureau Chief for Middle East Eye on Sunday reportedly showing Bayraktar TB2 armed drone in action against the Russian military in Ukraine.
The TB2 Bayraktar has been deployed in several conflicts in recent years. The Turkish government has used the system against both Syrian and Kurdish forces in the Middle East. It was also employed by the Azerbaijani military against Armenian forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, where the UAV was known for its success targeting Armenian air defense systems and tanks, largely older Russian-made equipment. But the outcome may be different against a more modern military.
“We learned from Nagorno-Karabakh that when countries have the capacity to operate armed drones on the battlefield, and air defenses are less of a concern, that drones can play an important role in anti-armor warfare,” said Michael Horowitz, a professor at University of Pennsylvania.
But while the drone proved itself useful in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020 and in Syria, it now faces a much more capable adversary.
Russian state media said Thursday that its military had shot down four TB2s.
Ukraine bought six TB2 UAVs from Turkish drone-maker Baykar for $69 million in 2019, according to Defense News, with the first drone delivered to the Ukrainian Navy in July last year. In October, the UAV was used against separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, the first time it was used by the Ukrainian military in combat. The Ukrainian government signaled it wants to buy 24 more TB2 drones, and since agreed with Turkey to co-produce the drone at a facility in Ukraine, Defense News reported.