Turkey’s indigenous ANKA-S drone successfully completes first combat mission

Turkey’s domestically-produced ANKA-S unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has successfully completed its first combat mission, said Undersecretary for Turkey’s Defense Industries (SSM) İsmail Demir on Monday.

In a tweet posted on his official account, Demir shared a photo of the armed drone with the caption, “The ANKA-S drone that we delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces’ Air Force Command have successfully completed their combat mission.”

The drones were delivered to the TAF between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10 of this year.

Turkey now meets 65 percent of its defense needs locally.

The ANKA-S System was developed for day and night reconnaissance, surveillance, fixed/mobile target detection, identification, tracking and real-time image intelligence tasks, which are also optimal for unfavorable weather conditions. The ANKA-S System has a payload of 200 kilograms and an altitude of 30,000 feet and is capable of 24 hours of flight time.