In the global military drone field, China and the United States are the undisputed first-tier "players". The Iranian and Turkey , which have always been "unknown", have grown into a second-rate drone power without realizing it. All kinds of drones in the two countries have performed quite impressively in a series of regional conflicts in recent years.
According to The Paper , the Minister of Defense of Malaysia announced that it will order three Turkey's air long-time drones, model "Anka-S". "Anka-S" is a newly launched anti-trial and attack drone in Türkiye in recent years. The purpose of Malaysia's procurement of the aircraft is to combat domestic terrorist armed forces. In terms of quantity alone, the orders of just three aircraft are indeed not large, but this is the "0 breakthrough" achieved by Turkish military drones in the Southeast Asian arms sales market, and the significance cannot be underestimated.
It is not difficult to find that with the eye-catching performance of various military drones in a series of local wars, many Southeast Asian countries are increasingly inclined to purchase such equipment to solve various traditional and non-traditional security problems. Especially the detection and attack integrated drones are obviously the most popular. For example, the Indonesian military imported the "Rainbow-4" detection and attack integrated drone from China, and then launched the domestic "Black Hawk" drone; Myanmar introduced the "Rainbow-3" detection and attack integrated drone from China; after purchasing the Israeli drone, Thailand launched a "customized" cooperation and development of the detection and attack integrated drone with China. Now Malaysia has also joined in. The introduction of Türkiye's "Anka-S" may mean that in the Southeast Asian region, many countries have vaguely begun an "arms race" in the field of investigation and combating integrated drones. The reason why
"scrambles to introduce drones" is largely related to the " non-traditional security threat " that these Southeast Asian countries generally face. After all, drones are one of the excellent anti-terrorism equipment and means. At the same time, it should also be noted that the military and economic strength of the above-mentioned countries is generally relatively limited. Compared with expensive manned fighter jets, even mid-to-high-end all-in-one drones are still relatively cheap, and can also avoid casualties from precious pilots.
can cruise for a long time and have the ability to strike the ground. When performing air surveillance and surveillance tasks, it can quickly turn into an attack state and launch attacks on ground targets, so as to achieve "discovery at any time and strike at any time." Terrorists generally lack air defense firepower or heavy firepower equipment. The combination of "response and strike integrated drone + guided ammunition for small drones" can completely constitute the advantage of "dimensionality reduction strike" for such targets. Myanmar government army After obtaining China's "Rainbow-3" drone , it invested it in the battle against the country's northern separatist warlord forces, achieving extremely excellent strike and deterrent effects. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that the surrounding Southeast Asian countries have been "inspired" to greatly increase their interest in such equipment.
Relying on the advantages of military industry technical strength and the "endorsement" of a series of overseas export achievements, China's foreign trade drones currently occupy a considerable market share in Southeast Asia. But now, Türkiye has also begun to cut into this cake. Although compared with Chinese products, Türkiye's military drones are clearly at a relatively low-end position. However, considering that the Malaysian army has the traditional habit of using NATO standard weapons, the use of a large number of Turkish equipment that uses Western technology and parts does have some unique advantages of its own.
But to be fair, it is still quite difficult for Türkiye to shake the status of Chinese drone in Southeast Asia. After all, China's various types of investigation and attack integrated drones are not only technologically advanced, but also supported by a strong comprehensive manufacturing industry chain. Whether it is maintenance or technological upgrades, they can be "on-call".In contrast, Turkey's so-called "domestic drones" often only assemble the imported European and American technologies and components, and then label them as "Made in Turkey". Once one day European and American suppliers cut off the supply of relevant technologies and components, Turkish production work will stagnate. Therefore, in a short period of time, in the Southeast Asian military drone market, which is still in the "blue ocean" stage, China will still be the main exporter, and there are still many potential incremental markets to explore.
