The story behind Selçuk Bayraktar’s UAV success

Selçuk Bayraktar, who was born on October 7, 1979 in Istanbul, is an engineer, entrepreneur, industrialist, and aviator. He is also the chief architect of Turkey’s first indigenous drone systems and the chief technology officer (CTO) of Baykar Defense.

While studying at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Bayraktar was offered a scholarship by the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), where he received his master’s degree in 2004. Additionally, he was awarded a second scholarship by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world’s most prominent universities, as a research assistant in the department of aeronautics and astronautics due to his studies on air-ground coordination of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in formation flight alongside terrestrial robot teams, which was the first study in that field.

In 2006, Bayraktar won a competition organized by the Turkish military for an unmanned mini drone with Bayraktar Mini UAV, which was developed as Turkey’s first mini-robot system made with locally manufactured electronics, software, and structural components. After it passed all the tests successfully, the Turkish Armed Forces ordered the first 19 of Bayraktar Mini UAVs and put them into service of Turkish military in 2007.

After having carried out several successful operations against the PKK terrorist group, the completely Turkish made Bayraktar Mini UAV system proved its competence in military use.

In 2012, Bayraktar and his team started to develop a tactical armed unmanned aerial vehicle (AUAV) system, Bayraktar TB2, as the U.S. decided not to sell Turkey armed drones. Bayraktar TB2’s first fully autonomous flight test was conducted in 2014, and in the following year, for the first time the Bayraktar TB2 fired indigenous munition made by Turkish defense industry manufacturer Roketsan.

Bayraktar and his low-cost armed Turkish drones have been praised around the world, such as by Francis Fukuyama and UK defense secretary Ben Wallace, who have described how Turkey’s drones are reshaping warfare.

Selçuk Bayraktar