Bayraktar Akinci

Turkey’s heavy-strike HALE UCAV — a 24-hour twin-turboprop that combines a 1,500-kg payload with cruise missiles, air-launched ballistic munitions and an AESA radar, underpinning a 16-country export drive built on technology transfer and local co-production.

Overview

The Bayraktar Akinci (Turkish “Raider”) is a high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) twin-turboprop unmanned combat aerial vehicle developed by Baykar. Sized for strategic strike and ISTAR, the platform routinely operates at 30,000 ft with a 24-h endurance, carries 1,500 kg of sensors and ordnance on eight hardpoints, and is cleared for a uniquely broad family of Turkish-made stand-off weapons. Its combination of deep-magazine strike persistence, an AESA radar, and aggressive co-production export terms has made it the world’s most widely exported heavy UCAV, with 16 customer nations by early 2026 according to Defence Turkey.

Development

Baykar began Project Akinci to step from the tactical TB2 into the strategic HALE class. Preliminary design closed in June 2019, the first aircraft was unveiled at TEKNOFEST September 2019, and the maiden flight followed on 6 December 2019 Airforce Technology. The type entered Turkish service on 29 August 2021 after a rapid test campaign that included live-firing of guided munitions from April 2021. Baykar funded the program largely from export revenue, which reached $1.8 billion in both 2023 and 2024 and roughly $2.2 billion in 2025, representing about one-quarter of Turkey’s defence-aerospace exports Baykar.

A block improvement path followed: the more powerful Akinci-B (2×750 hp) flew in March 2022 and set a national altitude record of 45,118 ft that June Wikipedia. The Akinci-C (2×850 hp) and the first MURAD AESA radar-equipped aircraft both flew in early 2025 Baykar. By March 2025 the fleet had surpassed 100,000 flight hours.

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