The Turkish Drone Industry and Its Geopolitical Significance, with a Focus on Africa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12700/jceeas.2026.6.1.433Keywords:
Türkiye, Drones, Drone industry, Defence industry, UAVs, Geopolitics, BayraktarAbstract
The study examines a specific segment of the Turkish military industry capabilities in the light of the country’s geopolitical aims. In recent years, Türkiye has become one of the best-known and most important global exporters of military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, in the world military equipment market. Turkish drone development and warfare has introduced many innovative military operational concepts that have achieved great success in the conflicts of recent years. If we are talking about military alliance systems, it cannot be neglected from the point of view of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that the robotic warfare solutions of one of its militarily strong member states, Türkiye, are proving to be effective against Soviet-era Russian weapons, thus providing a significant combat advantage to the countries with the given UAV, or for armed groups. The weapons tested in combat have clearly opened up new horizons for the Turkish defence industry in terms of manufacturing and exporting high-tech products. In addition to economic and military benefits, Ankara can also use the expansion of its customer base for its geopolitical purposes. The submitted research paper focuses on the Turkish defence industry including the drone industry and its geopolitical driving factors.
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