CEO: Türkiye’s BAYKAR expands global reach with drones in 37 countries PHOTO

Selçuk Bayraktar, Chairman of the Board of BAYKAR, announced that the company now employs 8,000 people and emphasised that BAYKAR’s aerial platforms are present in 37 countries worldwide, Caliber.Az reports, citing SavunmaSanayiST.com.

Speaking at the closing of the Take Off İstanbul 2025 entrepreneurial summit, Bayraktar noted that 90% of the company’s revenue comes from exports, and BAYKAR holds approximately 60% of the global export market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). He highlighted that the company is “a large family of 8,000 people working on high-tech products.”

Bayraktar also discussed the KIZILELMA unmanned combat aircraft project, stating that, for the first time in aviation history, a UAV destroyed a target beyond visual range using its own radar. According to him, this marks “the beginning of a new era in global aviation,” and the entire operation was carried out with domestically developed aircraft, radar, and missiles.

Regarding BAYKAR’s space initiatives, known as Fergani, Bayraktar said about 130 engineers are working on the projects. He added that the company is developing its own global positioning system, has already launched another orbital transport vehicle, and that work on low-Earth orbit satellites is becoming increasingly important amid global competition and growing interest in projects like Starlink.

He stressed that creating a national navigation system is critically important for both the civilian sector and the defence industry, given the vulnerability of existing systems to interference. The new system will be named Uluğ Bey.

Bayraktar also stated that Türkiye now has the capability to conduct space launches from its own site abroad. He noted that the country has a 30x30 km area in Somalia along the ocean coast, which can be used as a spaceport. Construction of the facility has already begun, and in the future, both Roketsan and BAYKAR will be able to use it.

By Vugar Khalilov