The Slovak Ministry of Defense is seeking to acquire an unspecified number of armed unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to equip it´s armed forces, and one of the candidates is the Bayraktar TB2.
Works on acquiring #drones for Slovak #military @ArmadaSR 🇸🇰 moving forward. Good talk today with Mr. Bayraktar from Turkey 🇹🇷 & discussions with other drone producers ongoing. pic.twitter.com/CtDKnr0mxw
— Jaro Nad (@JaroNad) April 13, 2022
Through his Twitter account, Slovakia’s Minister of Defense, Mr. Jaro Nad, announced that positive talks were held with representatives of the Turkish firm Baykar, manufacturers of the famous Bayraktar TB2, which has been reaping so many combat successes in recent years.
It was also reported that talks will be held with other manufacturers, possibly from the USA, Israel or even China.
But there is no doubt that the Turkish candidate has a good chance of being chosen by Slovakia, given that the same system was acquired by its neighbor Poland (also a NATO partner) and possibly also by Albania, which showed a marked interest in this UAS.
Although Baykar’s best sales pitch to promote its product is to be found in its successful military track record.
The Bayraktar TB2 was used profusely in all Turkish military operations in the Middle East and Libya, and played a prominent role during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, where it destroyed a large amount of Armenian military equipment.
And it is currently on the Ukrainian battlefields where the Bayraktar TB2 continues to show its good qualities. The Ukrainian defense forces have been using this drone, with great effectiveness, since the beginning of the conflict.
The #BayraktarTB2 camera captured the moments when Ukrainian artillery destroyed its targets. pic.twitter.com/tMeYn5BTZr
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 13, 2022
The Bayraktar TB2 is used in reconnaissance missions, in attack missions on high value targets, using its own guided munitions and for artillery fire direction, a combo that proved highly effective and lethal against concentrations of Russian armored vehicles.
Whatever the system chosen by Slovakia, it is clear the growing importance of the use of unmanned aerial systems for modern warfare, because they allow the deployment of reconnaissance or offensive capabilities that previously had to be covered by manned aircraft, at a cost and risk several scales lower.
