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Turkish defense company Baykar to test sea-based TB3 drones

"As everyone is talking about how drone technology is changing battle doctrines ... one of our next objectives is the TB3 drone, capable of taking off from and landing on TCG Anadolu," Haluk Bayraktar -- one of two engineer brothers running the defense firm Baykar -- said in a statement while referring to a planned Turkish light aircraft carrier.

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Turkish defense company Baykar to test sea-based TB3 drones

The autonomously manoeuvring craft will be capable of operating in tandem with piloted aircraft, and may carry air-to-air missiles, the company said.

Baykar, founded in the 1980s by Bayraktar's father, began to focus on unmanned aircraft production in 2005 as Turkey sought to strengthen its local defence industry.

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Turkish defense company Baykar to test sea-based TB3 drones

Now it is spearheading Turkey's global defence export push. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says international demand for TB2 and the newer Akıncı drone is huge.

"Everywhere, even in my Africa trip, they want drones, armed drones and Akinci," he told Baykar workers last month after returning from a trip to Angola, Togo and Nigeria. "The whole world ... want to see and to know what you are doing."

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Turkish defense company Baykar to test sea-based TB3 drones

The first Akıncı drone, which has longer flight time and can carry a larger payload than the TB2, was delivered to the Turkish military in August.

Bayraktar said Turkey had made a "huge leap" in its effort to create its own defense industry over the last 20 years, expanding from 17 companies to nearly 17,000.

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Turkish defense company Baykar to test sea-based TB3 drones

"The drone technology is just one success story born from the national and indigenous development drive," he said. "We started to reap the benefits of work that began two decades ago only recently."