Despite regular affronts to NATO, notably with the purchase of an S-400 battery from Russia and multiple provocations in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ankara seems to benefit from relative leniency from Washington. Indeed, Baykar was able without difficulty to export its “bestseller” to Ukraine, with the support of the State Department. This unusual support is said to be due to the fact that Turkey exports its equipment at low cost to countries allied with the United States, but also to Ukraine, Morocco and the Philippines, the United States deploys a diplomatic-military strategy to thwart Russian or Chinese influence. Turkey therefore benefits from significant support since it indirectly allows the United States to support allied nations engaged in a rivalry with its adversaries, even if this is to the detriment of the European BITD. Commissioned from 2014, the Baykar TB2 continues its “success story,” both militarily in Syria, Libya and Azerbaijan but also industrially with Turkey, Qatar, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Morocco. Apart from Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan would be very interested in the capabilities of this tactical drone. This augurs well for an excellent decade for the Istanbul firm which is multiplying projects (Akinci, VTOL UAV, Mini UAV) and experiments such as the navalization of the TB2 for amphibious vessels. To read the full story, check out the article in Air & Cosmos.
https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/turquie-ambigut-amricaine-24878
