Chief of General Staff General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu announced a new target regarding the production capacity of the Turkish Armed Forces in the field of unmanned systems. Bayraktaroğlu stated that the goal is to produce 5 million kamikaze systems in 5 years and a total of 10 million in 10 years.
The announcement was made within the scope of the International Best Military Drone Team Competition (BIMDTC-2026), organized for the first time by the Land Forces Command. The event was held on October 24, 2026, in the Temelli region of Ankara.
Bayraktaroğlu emphasized that the importance of unmanned systems is increasing in the evolving combat environment. However, the statement did not share details regarding which types of kamikaze systems the target covers, which institutions or companies will carry out the production, or how the schedule will proceed year by year.
THE SCOPE OF THE PRODUCTION TARGET IS NOT YET CLEAR
Stating that the localization rate in Turkey's defense industry has reached 83 percent, Bayraktaroğlu expressed that capabilities in unmanned systems are one of the important pillars of this accumulation. The high-volume production target also reflects the interest in low-cost and mass-producible UAV concepts that have come to the fore on battlefields in recent years.
In particular, the intensive use of FPV drones and kamikaze UAVs in the Russia-Ukraine War has made topics such as production scale, supply continuity, training, and logistics capacity more visible in defense planning. For this reason, it is stated that the announced target is not limited to the number of platforms; it will be evaluated together with the infrastructure for command-control, training, and effective use in the field.
Bayraktaroğlu said that in the future combat environment, decision-making speed, sensing capability, and coordination between systems will be decisive, in addition to technical capacity. The aim is to protect personnel, reduce losses, and increase operational effectiveness through the combined use of manned and unmanned elements.
22 teams from 18 countries participated in BIMDTC-2026; 14 countries also followed the organization as observers. In the competition, the first team of the Turkish Land Forces Command completed the course in 41.417 seconds and took first place. Pakistan placed second, Italy third, and France fourth.
The TSK's target of 10 million kamikaze systems in 10 years indicates that the role of unmanned systems in military planning will grow even further. The financing of the target, the production structure, and the types of platforms it will cover will become clear in the coming period.
News Source: 12punto
