Baykar Bayraktar TB2

Bayraktar TB2 (Turkish: Standard-bearer TB2) is a family of medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations. It is manufactured by the Turkish company Baykar for the Turkish Armed Forces and export markets. The aircraft are monitored and controlled by an aircrew in a ground control station, including weapons employment. The development of the UAV has been largely credited to Selçuk Bayraktar, a former MIT graduate student along with his brother Haluk Bayraktar. It is the first UCAV in the world that successfully performs a barrel roll and also an autonomous spin recovery maneuver. It is also the most produced and export-successful UCAV in the world. Baykar now has a production capacity of 250 Bayraktar TB2s per year and is aiming to increase the production capacity to 500 per year. Baykar is also going to start a production line for the Bayraktar TB2 along with the Bayraktar Akıncı at its Italy-based subsidiary, Piaggio Aerospace. New production lines for the Bayraktar TB2 are going to start by the equal joint venture company established by Baykar and Leonardo known as LBA Systems, along with the Bayraktar TB3, Bayraktar Akıncı and Bayraktar Kızılelma.

By December 2024, the TB2 drone had completed 1 million flight hours globally. The largest operator of TB2 drones is the Turkish military, and the drone was exported to the militaries of at least 34 other countries. Turkey has used the drone extensively in strikes on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and People's Protection Units (YPG) targets in Iraq and Syria. Bayraktar drones were later deployed by a number of other nations around the world in various wars, such as by Azerbaijan in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, by the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as by the Ethiopian National Defense Force during the Tigray war.

Bayraktar TB2 played a fundamental role in Turkey's development of a new military tactic and initiated a wave of change in modern military doctrines. It was accepted as the initiator of a new method of war by many military analysts and strategists, including the political scientist Francis Fukuyama.