How an underdog drone became a ‘folk hero’ in Ukraine’s guerrilla air force

The Bayraktar TB2 is fast becoming a legend as it punches above its weight in a war for national survival.

One of the many standouts in Ukraine’s defense is the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone.

Bayraktar provides a live image of the battlefield and the ability to strike far behind Russian lines.
The Turkish drone has racked up nearly 800 targets, destroyed on three continents.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not going the way Moscow intended, and one reason for that is a small, inexpensive Turkish combat drone. Ukraine’s small fleet of Bayraktar TB2 drones are giving the bear a good kicking, destroying surface-to-air missile batteries, fuel convoys, and other targets vital to Russia’s war effort. The drone, first flown in 2014, has destroyed 796 targets in five wars across Syria, Ukraine, and Ethiopia.

The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) reconnaissance and strike drone. The drone is just 21 feet long with a wingspan of 39.5 feet, making it smaller than the U.S. military’s MQ-9 Reaper drone. A 105-horsepower turboprop engine drives a rearward-facing push propeller, giving it a cruising speed of 70 knots and a top speed of just 120 knots. Bayraktar can stay aloft for up to 27 hours, and reach a maximum altitude of 18,000 feet. It has a maximum payload capacity of 300 pounds.

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Bayraktar includes a sensor turret with an electro-optical camera, night vision, and a laser designator. This allows Bayraktar to loiter more than three miles above the surface of Earth, day or night, and give drone operators hundreds of miles away the ability to look down onto the battlefield in real time.

Once the operators decide what to strike, they can point the drone’s laser designator at a target and release up to four Rocketsan MAM-C micromunitions. The small, laser-guided glide bombs are equipped with armor piercing, high-explosive blast fragmentation, and even thermobaric warheads. While MAM-Cs are small, weighing just 48 pounds each, laser guidance means the Ukrainians can place them exactly where they want them, maximizing their effectiveness.

Source: Popular Mechanics