Turkey, Kazakhstan deepen relations in space tech, drone production

ANKARA, Turkey — Kazakhstan and Turkey have signaled plans to develop “long-term strategic cooperation” that may contain the co-production of satellites and different area programs.

The settlement got here as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Kazakhstan on Oct. 16 along with his chief protection procurement official, Ismail Demir, who stopped by the Central Asian nation’s nationwide area middle.

Demir, who leads the federal government’s Presidency of Defence Industries, met with Mussin Bagdat, Kazakhstan’s minister for digital improvement, innovation, area and aviation.

Turkish Aerospace Industries signed the memorandum of understanding with two Kazakh aerospace corporations, Kazsat and Ghalam, for “long-term strategic cooperation.” The memorandum requires the co-production of satellites and subsystems, together with space-observation capabilities.

“This is step one in robust cooperation with Kazakhstan within the discipline of area. The MoU we signed with Kazsat and Ghalam corporations on the institution of long-term strategic cooperation within the fields of satellite tv for pc and area shall be helpful to our nation and nation,” TAI mentioned.

The corporate additionally lately signed a cope with Kazakhstan Engineering for the co-production of its Anka drone within the Central Asian republic.

The Anka has advanced right into a modular platform with artificial aperture radar, exact weaponry and satellite tv for pc communication.

The fundamental model, the Anka-A, is a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV meant for reconnaissance missions. Launched in 2010, the Anka gained its first contract in 2013 from the Turkish Air Pressure. The Anka-B variant made its first flight in 2014 and accomplished manufacturing unit assessments in 2015.

In 2017, TAI launched the Anka-S, the satellite-controlled model. The Anka-I used to be developed particularly for Turkey’s Nationwide Intelligence Group for alerts intelligence operations.

The Anka household of programs has amassed greater than 90,000 flight hours as of March 2021.