Turkey’s first UAV Bayraktar TB2’s aircraft with tail number J11 has completed a million hours of flight time in the sky. The UAV, whose mission is completed, will now be used as a training and test aircraft within the structure of Baykar. The J11 aircraft, part of the fleet of Turkey’s first UAV Bayraktar TB2, which has reached over a million flight hours in the sky, successfully completed its mission of 10,000 flight hours after entering inventory in 2016.

According to the statement by Baykar, the Bayraktar TB2 J11 UAV, which has been successfully serving in critical missions such as combating terrorism, maintaining public order and security, border security, search and rescue, and infrastructure protection since joining the inventory of the Gendarmerie General Command, completed 10,000 flight hours with 868 successful sorties. Baykar presented a certificate to the command in memory of the superior contributions made by the J11 tail number national UAV in the inventory of the Gendarmerie General Command.

The J11 tail number Bayraktar TB2 UAV, defined as the eye of the Gendarmerie in the skies, will now be used as a training and test aircraft within Baykar. Baykar gifted a new Bayraktar TB2 with a J60 tail number to the Gendarmerie General Command free of charge, replacing the UAV that completed this important mission. Removed from the inventory, the Bayraktar TB2 UAV played critical roles in tasks such as combating terrorism for 8370 hours, combating smuggling and narcotics for 246 hours, monitoring public events for 107 hours, ensuring border security for 1012 hours, search and rescue for 151 hours, and protecting strategic infrastructure for 114 hours.

First entering inventory in 2014 with a 93% localization rate and operating around the world, the Bayraktar TB2 UAVs successfully completed a million hours of flight time in December 2024. Thus, the national aircraft Bayraktar TB2 became the longest flying aircraft in Turkish aviation history. Bayraktar TB2 UAVs are in service under the Turkish Armed Forces, National Intelligence Organization, Gendarmerie General Command, General Directorate of Security, Coast Guard Command, and within the General Directorate of Forestry for the purpose of fighting forest fires.

The Bayraktar TB2, the owner of important records in aviation history, broke the altitude record in Turkey in its class with 27,030 feet. The national UAV, which participated in a demo flight in Kuwait on July 16, 2019, set another record by flying for 27 hours and 3 minutes continuously in challenging geographic and climatic conditions such as high temperatures and sandstorms. Making history as the world’s first and only UAV to successfully perform the autonomous barrel roll maneuver in test flights on May 31, 2024, the national UAV Bayraktar TB2 once again inscribed its name in aviation history. The barrel roll, one of the important evasive maneuvers for combat aircraft, had not been successfully performed by any UAV in the world until then.

In addition to the critical roles it plays in Turkey’s fight against terrorism, the National UAVs have proven themselves with outstanding performances in international operations. Operating in every corner of the world, the National UAVs played a key role in ending 30 years of occupation in Karabakh, as well as in the wars in Libya, Ukraine, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

Developed nationally and uniquely by Baykar, the Bayraktar TB2 UAVs succeeded in entering the inventories of countries after competitive processes at many points worldwide. Winning the competitive process conducted by the Kuwait Ministry of Defense the previous year, Bayraktar TB2 signed an important export contract by surpassing American, European, and Chinese competitors. This success strengthened Baykar’s global influence while consolidating its presence in NATO and EU countries in 2024.

Thanks to the agreement signed with Croatia on November 19, 2024, the Bayraktar TB2 entered the inventories of 6 NATO member countries and 4 EU member countries. The National UAVs play an effective role in civilian missions such as disasters like earthquakes and floods, search and rescue operations, monitoring irregular migration, and fighting forest fires alongside security duties.

Participating in the earthquake in Elazığ Sivrice on January 24, 2020, with a magnitude of 6.8, the Bayraktar TB2 UAVs carried out tasks by flying for 2417 hours and 6 minutes in the earthquakes focusing on Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023. In this context, a total of 42 Bayraktar TB2 UAVs, including 8 with integrated Baykar Rapid Mapping Pods, were involved. As part of the fight against forest fires, between 2020 and 2024, 4091 fires were identified and extinguished without spreading by the Bayraktar TB2 UAVs.

Starting all projects with its own resources from the beginning, Baykar derived 83% of its revenue from exports since the start of the UAV R&D process in 2003. With $1.8 billion in exports in 2023, Baykar was among the top 10 companies with the highest exports in all sectors in Turkey.

As the largest unmanned aircraft export company in the world, Baykar continued its global success in 2024, obtaining 90% of its revenue from exports and reaching an export volume of $1.8 billion. Winner of the Export Champions Award, Baykar was the export leader in the defense industry and aviation sector according to the data of the Presidency of Defense Industries and the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Generating one-third of sector exports in 2023, Baykar took Turkey to a leading position in the global UAV export market by single-handedly realizing one-quarter of the total defense and aviation sector exports in 2024.

Currently, 97.5% of the contracts signed by Baykar for the Bayraktar TB2 UAV and the Bayraktar AKINCI TİHA have been export-based. An export agreement has been signed with 34 countries for the Bayraktar TB2 UAV and with a total of 36 countries, including 11 so far, for the Bayraktar AKINCI TİHA.