Turkey and Brazil commence drone-centric defense collaboration

A Brazilian Armed Forces delegation and members of the Defense Products Secretariat (Seprod/Defense Ministry) officially embarked on a collaborative journey with Turkey following a visit to the Turkish defense company Baykar’s industrial facilities on July 27th.

Baykar is renowned globally for manufacturing advanced drones such as the stealth-capable Bayraktar Kizilelma and the Bayraktar TB-2/TB-3, which collectively have logged over 600,000 flight hours.

This visit marks the beginning of a mutual cooperation sparked by Turkey’s significant participation in LAAD 2023.

Previously, the Defense Ministry via Seprod had entered into a defense industry collaboration agreement with the Turkish Defense Industries Presidency.

This initiative ensures suitable conditions for research, development, production, and modernization in the sector, alongside other reserved agendas.

But what can Turkey and Brazil gain from this collaboration?

According to Baykar’s Latin America representative and defense technology expert, Renato Werner Queiroz, the answer is drones.

Queiroz believes that Turkey’s Baykar recognized globally for its technological innovations in military drones, can benefit greatly from Brazil’s Embraer, a globally respected manufacturer of excellent aircraft and e-VTOLS.

This partnership aims to marry Brazil’s experience crafting diverse aircraft types and features with Turkey’s excellence in creating autonomous, remotely-piloted drones to execute combat missions and traditional reconnaissance, surveillance, and target designation tasks.

Queiroz also mentions the potential of providing the Brazilian military with solutions for attacking targets using various missile types and smart weaponry developed in Turkey and currently absent from Brazilian arsenals.

Brazilian armed forces are executing significant drone acquisition programs.

The army operates a short-range hybrid drone capable of vertical takeoff and landing armed with a small missile.

However, it lacks heavier firepower for ground targets.

The navy operates a tactical reconnaissance UAV but cannot attack surface targets using a navalized combat drone with long-range missiles.

Lastly, while the air force possesses well-developed ISR/Istar capabilities, it lacks an autonomous, high-capacity attack vector, which the Bayraktar Akıncı perfectly matches.