TB2 UAV wins $370 million order from Kuwait.

TB2 UAV wins $370 million order from Kuwait.

Bekaa of Turkey announced that it had signed a contract with Kuwait Ministry of Defence to supply BayraktarTB2 unmanned aerial vehicle. The deal is worth $370 million, but details such as the purchase quantity have not been made public. This is also the first marketing success of TB2 in 2023. Belakta also proudly announced that its export countries have reached 28, the global fleet has flown more than 600,000 hours and delivered more than 350 aircraft, which is really a big profit.

TB2 is a 600kg medium reconnaissance and strike integrated UAV developed by Turkey, which can perform intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and attack tasks.

The unmanned TB2 has a captain of 6.5m, a wingspan of 12m, a maximum takeoff weight of 650kg, a payload of 150kg, an operational altitude of 5,500m and a ceiling of 8,239m. It adopts composite wing-body integrated design, double tail support, inverted V tail and propulsion engine layout. A 100 horsepower with a three-blade propeller is installed at the back of the fuselage.

The fuel tank capacity of the fuselage is 300 liters, which can make the aircraft's combat radius exceed 150 km, cruise speed 130 km/h, maximum speed of 220 km/h and endurance time of 27 hours.

A photoelectric pod is installed under the belly of the aircraft, which integrates a white light/infrared camera, a laser rangefinder and a target indicator, and can provide illumination for laser semi-active missiles and bombs. There are four hanging points on the wing, which can mount the MAM-L laser semi-active guided bomb and the MAM-C laser semi-active guided bomb.

TB2 adopts composite wing body with carbon fiber and aramid fiber, some aluminum parts processed by numerical control, small swept wing with large aspect ratio, and a large number of mature shelf parts to reduce the cost. BUK- 10 1 3 redundancy digital flight control system can maintain its high endurance and low signal characteristics, and MAM-L and MAM-C guided bombs can also achieve accurate strikes with remarkable performance.

The TB2 system consists of six UAVs, two ground control stations (GCS), three ground data terminals (GDT), two remote video terminals (RVT) and ground support equipment. In 2065438+2009, 65438+2009, Baykar Company sold a contract for six TB2 UAVs in a system to Ukraine, with a value of $69 million. Becca's monthly output is 20 drones.

The market price of TB-2 is $2 million lower and $6 million higher. It seems that it is a high-end version for Ukraine. The bidding for Kuwaiti UAV started from 20 19, and companies from the United States, Europe and China participated in the bidding. The advantages of Turkish drones are more actual combat and less political restrictions.

During the successful test flight of TB2 in Kuwait in July, 2065438+2009, the negotiations between the two sides have been going on. During the test flight, the UAV demonstrated its combat capability in harsh geographical and climatic conditions including high temperature and sandstorm, and also created a flight record of TB2 with a flight time of 27 hours and 3 minutes, so it can occupy an advantage in bidding.

Moreover, its performance in Turkey's fight against Kurdish armed forces on the border, the Libyan civil war, the Naka war and the Russian-Ukrainian war has also added a lot of weight to it.

There are 28 user countries of TB2 UAV, including Azerbaijan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan, Qatar, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, Albania, Mali, Libya, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, Poland, Rwanda, Lithuania (later transferred to Ukraine), Kuwait, Senegal, Somalia and other countries.

Some have arrived, and some may not have received it yet. In this case, since Bekaa started the research and development process of drones in 2003, 75% of all revenue has come from exports. According to the data of Turkish Exporters' Association 202 1, Bekaa has become a leader in the manufacturing and export of Turkish defense and aerospace industries, accounting for 99.3% of the contracts signed in 2022, with a total revenue of11800,000 US dollars.

With more and more mass-produced and self-produced components, its income will further increase, which is also the basis for its continued research and development of large drones and unmanned combat aircraft!