Poland Buys 24 Advanced Armed Drones With Anti-Tank Projectiles From Turkey

Drone bersenjata Turki Bayraktar TB2. (Wikimedia Commons/Bayhaluk)

JAKARTA - Poland will become a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that buys drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from Turkey. This is as announced by Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

In its announcement, Saturday, May 22, at local time, Poland will purchase 24 Bayraktar TB2 armed drones, along with logistics and training pallets from Turkey.

"Drone Bayraktar TB2 has proven itself in the war. And the UAV will be handled by a military company", Blaszczak told Reuters on Sunday, May 23.

The contract, which will be completed without a procurement process, will be signed next week during a visit by Polish President Andrzej Duda to Turkey.

Turkish authorities say the country has become the world's fourth-largest drone manufacturer since President Tayyip Erdogan increased domestic production to reduce dependence on Western weapons.

Turkish Drone Bayraktar TB2. (Wikimedia Commons/Zinnsoldat)

Before selling drones to Poland, Turkish defense technology company Baykar had already exported similar drones to several countries, such as Ukraine, Qatar, and Libya.

Earlier, President Erdogan said Saudi Arabia was also interested in buying similar drones from Turkey last March, on the sidelines of criticism of Saudi Arabia's military exercises with Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean as well as strained Saudi Arabia -Turkey relations over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in 2018.

"But on the other hand, there is currently a request from Saudi Arabia for an armed UAV from Turkey. That's the latest development", he said at the time without elaborating.

Canada canceled a permit to export drone technology to Turkey in April, after concluding that the equipment was used by Azeri forces fighting Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. The embargoed section includes a camera system for Baykar's armed drones.