The drone was first seen near Makaou, Iran, and last near Van, Turkey.
Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, has died after the Bell 212 helicopter he was traveling in crashed in the mountains of East Azerbaijan’s Jolfa region. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also on board the crashed helicopter.
The helicopter navigated through dense fog and harsh weather conditions and crashed in the mountains of Jofa a few minutes after take-off. The massive search operation was launched, with neighboring countries – Turkey, Iraq and Azerbaijan – offering assistance. Turkey’s Bayraktar Akinci drone reportedly found the helicopter wreckage in northern Iran, close to the border with Azerbaijan.
The AKINCI01, the drone’s call sign, detected heat signatures as it hovered over the crash site early this morning. The drone was first seen near Makaou, Iran, and was last seen near Van in Turkey, where it passed a crescent through its flight path, which was detected on its flight path by open-source websites for flight tracking.
The combat path of the Akinci drone according to Flightradar24
The Akinci drones
Akinci’s manufacturer, Bayraktar, claims the drone is capable of performing operations that a fighter jet can perform. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can be used for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat operations. It has a broadcast time of 24 hours and reaches an altitude of 40,000 feet. It has a navigation system with an internal sensor fusion, which can function without relying on GPS.
The other self-built drones
Bayraktar TB2, Turkey’s homegrown drone, is a tactically armed medium-altitude drone with a maximum ceiling of 25,000 feet and can stay in the air for 27 hours. The Bayraktar TB2 is also the very first aircraft in its category to be exported abroad.
It is administered by Qatar, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and 30 other countries. It features fully automatic navigation and route tracking, precise automatic take-off and landing supported by internal sensor fusion, fully automatic taxiing and parking, support for semi-autonomous flight modes
Bayraktar TB3 is an armed unmanned aerial vehicle system currently being developed domestically by Baykar that can take off and land on aircraft carriers with a short runway. In addition to reconnaissance and intelligence missions, the Bayraktar TB3 can launch an attack operation with smart munitions under its wings.
The Bayraktar TB2 drones were spotted in Ukraine’s armor during the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. The drones reportedly decimated Russian tanks and infantry in the early stages of the war, but as the conflict progressed the Russians focused on ways to counter drone threats and the use of TB2 slowly disappeared.
Turkey’s relationship with the US and Russia is a curious case. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to acquire Russia’s S-400 missile defense system and the US fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighter jet at the same time.
