Turkish drone magnate Baykar has finalized an export contract worth $367 million with the Kuwaiti government on Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), the company and the Kuwaiti army announced on Tuesday.
"We have successfully completed the contract process with the Government of Kuwait on the export of domestically made Bayraktar TB2 UCAVs," Baykar said in a statement on Twitter.
"National UCAV#BayraktarTB2s, with which we have signed export contracts with 30 countries so far, will continue to serve for the establishment of peace and security in the inventory of friendly and brotherly countries," Haluk Bayraktar, general manager of the company, said in a Twitter statement.
The statement added that the drone, which has broken a record by flying continuously for 27 hours and three minutes in difficult geographical and climatic conditions such as high temperatures and sandstorms, will be on duty over Kuwaiti skies.
Kuwaiti Air Force operations chief brigadier, General Fahad Al-Dosari, said in a video posted on their Twitter account that the drone fleet can support the navy and coast guard, as well as monitor maritime and land borders. He said the drones can also "carry out reconnaissance and targeted missions" in addition to supporting search and rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, both statements did not reveal how many drones would be delivered to Kuwait or when.
The State of Kuwait would be the 30th country in the world to finalize a contract for the Bayraktar TB2 drones.
The countries to which the battle-proven drone has been exported include NATO member Poland, Qatar, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. The company has also signed deals with five countries to export its much larger sibling Akıncı.
Negotiations between Baykar and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense started in 2019.
The country chose Türkiye’s domestically developed, battle-proven UCAV, which made a name for itself after being used in several conflicts from Syria to Ukraine, over competitive products of several companies from the U.S., Europe and China.
The drone contract between Baykar and Kuwait, struck through direct negotiations between the Turkish and Kuwaiti governments, also includes weapons provisioning, electronic warfare, and mobile ground control facilities compatible with NATO standards according to Kuwaiti state media.
Kuwait, considered a major non-NATO ally, and the U.S. have had a close military partnership since America launched the 1991 Gulf War to expel Iraqi troops after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the country. The country hosts the U.S. Army Central’s forward headquarters and some 13,500 American troops.
The TB2 has been credited with helping tip the balance of conflicts in Libya, as well as to Türkiye’s ally Azerbaijan in fighting with Armenian-backed forces in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020.
It has also enabled Ukraine to mount a stiff defense of its cities, carrying out attacks against Russian forces with an effectiveness that surprised many Western military experts and triggered a rush among nations to procure the unmanned craft.
The platform is known for taking out some of the most advanced anti-aircraft systems, artillery systems and armored vehicles.
Bayraktar TB2 has a 12-meter (39-foot) wingspan and can soar to 25,000 feet before swooping in to destroy tanks and artillery with laser-guided armor-piercing bombs.
Baykar has manufactured more than 400 TB2 to date, according to the company. It is now aiming to expand its production capacity further, a target that it in part hopes to achieve with a plant in Ukraine. Its CEO said that Baykar currently can manufacture 200 Bayraktar TB2s a year. It plans to raise this figure to 500.
Since the beginning of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) related research and development (R&D) studies in 2003, Baykar has earned 75% of all its revenues from exports.