African countries are increasingly acquiring Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 drone to fight insurgent groups, analyst Paul Melly wrote for BBC on Wednesday.
African countries such as Togo, Niger, Ethiopia, Morocco and Tunisia have already acquired the Turkish-made weapon, whose popularity has been sparked by its effectiveness in a number of conflicts around the world, Melly said, while Angola has expressed interest in the drone.
The Bayraktar TB2 drones have most recently been lauded for countering Russian attacks against Ukraine, with both Western and Ukrainian officials singing the praises of the battle-tested weapon since Russia’s invasion began in February.
In 2020, the drone allowed Azerbaijan to quickly control the skies and decisively win the war against Armenia in the long-disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in just six weeks.
“For African buyers, especially poorer countries, drones provide the chance to develop significant air power without the vast cost in equipment and years of elite training required to develop a conventional air strike force of manned jets,” according to Melly, a consulting fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House in London, who said this was particularly the case for Niger and Togo.
Produced by Baykar, a company owned by Erdoğan’s in-laws, Bayraktar B2 is one of the two prominent armed drones produced by Turkey. The weapon is cheaper than other Western models, but it has a good performance in key parameters, including range, altitude as well as sensors and communication system.
Niger and Togo are faced with the challenge of curbing Islamist militants, the analyst wrote, noting that the former’s army has been grappling with this problem for years, while for the latter, the extremists form a relatively new threat.
Turkish drones are able to provide the countries with their own national aerial surveillance capacity to stop militant fighters and even strike against them, the analyst wrote.
“For both Togo and Niger the supply partnership with Turkey is also politically useful, reducing their public reliance on close security partnerships with France, the former colonial power, about which a significant strand of domestic opinion remains uneasy,” according to Melly.
The cooperation, in turn, allows for Ankara’s foreign policy outreach south of the Sahara, beyond the Turkish government’s long-standing strengths such as airport constructions and other key infrastructure, he said.
Ahval