Drone envy: How Turkey’s prized warfare weapon both wins and risks igniting wars

Kyrgyzstan, a central Asian country, has finally gained an advantage over Tajikistan in a boundary dispute. It got three sought Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial combat drones armed with precision missiles capable of destroying any oncoming armour in late 2021. Officials promised the people that this would aid in repelling any assaults by its neighbour.

But not so quickly.

Only a few months later, Turkey agreed to supply the identical drones to Tajikistan, potentially giving Dushanbe parity in future military clashes. Outraged officials in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, dialled Ankara.

“They answered that it was just business,” Kyrgyz deputy foreign minister Jeenbek Kulubaev explained to lawmakers in April.

Turkey has surpassed China as the world’s greatest exporter of armed drones, sophisticated weapons that have shifted the balance of power in a number of conflicts, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The Bayraktar TB2, manufactured by Istanbul-based Baykar Aviation, has proven so popular in Ukraine that it may have become the world’s first and only weapon of war with its own catchy music video.

“Their arguments are all kinds of weapons – powerful rockets, machines of iron,” go the lyrics. “We have a response to all the arguments: Bayraktar.”

On Thursday, Lithuania’s defence minister announced a television channel’s effort to crowdfund a TB2 for Ukrainians.

“I can’t remember such fanfare around specific weaponry,” says Joe Dyke, of Airwars, an organisation devoted to tracking civilian casualties in armed conflicts. “No one sang songs about the Predator or Reaper drones. It’s a moment where everyone is talking about Bayraktar.”

However, the weapons’ prominent prominence has raised fears about proliferation among a variety of detractors, including military professionals and human-rights organisations. Drone envy is replacing “missile envy,” a word coined by Australian feminist Helen Caldicott to describe the Cold War armaments race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

For the latest International News Follow BOL News on Google News. Read more on Latest International News on oldsite.bolnews.com