Recently, Malaysia disclosed its drone procurement plan, and Türkiye 's "Anka-S" drone stood out in the fierce competition. As a NATO country spanning the Eurasian continent, Türkiye has frequently seen its weapons and equipment highlights in recent years. This time its drone has once again become the focus of discussion among major media. So, how powerful is the "Anka-S" drone, known as the "new machete" in Türkiye's air?
Let’s first look at the performance indicators of the “Anka-S” drone. The "Anka-S" wingspan is 17.5 meters, the length is 8.6 meters, and the maximum ceiling is 9,000 meters. It has the ability to fly autonomously, can take off and land on its own, and can perform missions for 30 consecutive hours at a flight altitude of 5,000 meters to 7,000 meters. The "Anka-S" drone can conduct reconnaissance and identification, intelligence collection, and can also carry bullets to perform ground strike missions. When performing a mission, the operator can accurately control the "Anka-S" drone within a range of 250 kilometers, which does require strong communication and control technology. In terms of main performance indicators, the performance of "Anka-S" seems to be pretty good, and it should be a relatively balanced detection and attack drone.
Speaking of Türkiye's drone development, it has actually experienced twists and turns. As early as the 1980s, Türkiye had already begun to develop drones, but due to the technology at that time, many models of drones developed ended in failure. Later, Türkiye imported the "Heron" drone from Israeli to fight militants. Some "heron" drones were even rented from Israel for military missions.
However, since Israel attacked the Turkish rescue ship "Blue Marmara" in 2010, the relationship between the two sides has fallen to the bottom and the drone contract is no longer implemented. After losing its source of drone imports, Türkiye turned to the United States to seek advanced drones and ordered an Predator drone and two "Death" drones. However, the United States has since refused to fulfill its contract on the grounds that Türkiye's drone threatened the security of Greek , and Türkiye once again lost the opportunity to obtain advanced drones.
During the continuous twists and turns, Türkiye gradually realized that international relations have a great impact on drones, such as more sensitive equipment. Once the international situation encounters twists and turns, it will seriously affect the purchase plan. Therefore, Türkiye has reopened its drone research and development project and invested a lot of money and resources. In the six years from 2004 to 2010, the Turkish military invested $1 billion in drones.
High capital investment, of course, has also achieved very considerable returns. The Turkish military now has a number of advanced micro and small and medium-sized drones, one of which is the Qaldiran tactical drone, the TB-2 "flag bearer" air long-distance drone, and the top "Anka-S" all-in-one drone. Facts have proved that Türkiye's self-developed drone has taken the right path. A few years ago, Türkiye put its TB-2 drone into the Syrian battlefield to fight against Kurdish militants. In recent months, Turkey's TB-2 drones have frequently appeared on the Ukrainian battlefield, becoming a powerful tool for Ukraine to attack the Russian army. The TB-2 drone has become famous and has become a representative of Türkiye's military export equipment.
"Anka-S" is the highest-level drone in Türkiye, of course, it has used all the high-end technologies that can be used. Moreover, with the US military drone as a model, the Turkish military also "feels the eagle sauce across the river", which has really saved a lot of costs. In order to improve combat effectiveness, the Turkish military has developed an integrated weapon system for the "Anka-S" and transplanted the ammunition used on the F16 fighter to this advanced drone. There are three external points on each wing, which can carry up to 750 kilograms of ammunition. Weapons that can be mounted include four types of precision guided bombs, including MK-81/82 laser guided bombs, LUMTAS, etc., , KGK (82) missiles, and micro bombs, which also makes the "Anka-S" powerful attack capabilities.However, such technology and equipment piles up have also caused the price of the "Anka-S" drone to soar to US$40 million, almost equivalent to an J-10C fighter . Therefore, even if the Turkish military thinks it is too expensive, it has only purchased a few aircraft.
Because of its strong performance, the "Anka-S" drone has gained a lot of favor. Since its launch in 2020, Pakistan has been fond of it and has been produced in joint production with Türkiye. Then, Kazakhstan also signed an agreement with Türkiye from procurement to cooperative production to establish a new production base in Kazakhstan. The latest trade result is that Malaysia purchases three "Anka-S" drones this time, which also makes the name of this advanced drone more and more famous.
Unlike the United States' practice of making various restrictions when exporting military equipment, Türkiye has chosen a variety of flexible cooperation methods. Turkey has not made too many restrictions on the export of drones. In addition to exporting equipment, it can also transfer technology at a suitable price. This is also an important reason why Turkey's "Anka-S" drones continue to sell well. As the global drone market becomes larger and larger, Türkiye's approach will surely gain more customers. Let me mention that Koreans also use this approach, and have rapidly expanded their arms market share in recent years and become a strong competitor in the international arms market.
Looking back at Türkiye's "Anka-S" drone's success can be said to be forced out. If the relationship between Turkey and Israel had not been stalemate, if the United States allowed the export of " Predator " and "Death" drones to Turkey, perhaps Turkey would not have made up its mind to develop its drone technology, and naturally it would not have been as popular as the "Anka-S" drone today. This seems to be similar to the development of our weapons and equipment. We also encountered various initial suppression and restrictions. Finally, through our unremitting struggle and hard work, we finally pushed military technology to the forefront of the world.
For a long time, the United States has been suppressing us for various reasons, not allowing the export of advanced fighter jets, engines, missiles, and other weapons and equipment to my country. Russia sometimes hides its weapons exports, forcing us to rely on independent research and development to break through one scientific and technological difficulties after another, and finally ushered in a gratifying situation of blossoming everywhere.
