EDIRNE, TURKIYE – MARCH 26: Baykar Bayraktar TB2 (left) and Bayraktar Akinci drones performs a flypast as part of Balkan Martyrsâ Remembrance Day, the event titled ‘Thracian Indigenous and National Systems Gather in Edirne’, in Turkiye on March 26, 2026. (Photo by Gokhan Balci/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Anadolu via Getty Images
In recent weeks, the Houthis in Yemen shot down a Turkish-made Bayraktar Akinci drone, and two Akincis were spotted in eastern Libya for the first time. These separate developments serve as yet another reminder of, with a few notable exceptions, how ubiquitous Turkey’s homegrown drones have become in the Middle East and North Africa region in a relatively short period of time.
On July 26, the Houthis announced they had shot down an Akinci drone operated by the Royal Saudi Air Force over northern Yemen’s Al Jawf governorate. The drone is one of Turkey’s larger and more sophisticated models, with heavier payloads, more varied munitions, and powerful sensors. It’s therefore substantially more expensive than Turkey’s smaller and less advanced but much more widely exported Bayraktar TB2.
The war between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, has shown worrying signs of reigniting since early July. The Houthis field an array of Iranian-designed one-way explosive drones and ballistic missiles, which they frequently fired increasingly deeper into Saudi Arabia during the last war that ended with a ceasefire in early 2022.
More recently, the Yemeni government has built up a rival drone arsenal. On August 23, the Yemeni army announced it had hit multiple Houthi positions with drone strikes, demonstrating it has some independent capability to respond to the Houthis’ long-range drone and missile strikes. Interestingly, in late July, The New Arab outlet in London reported that the Yemeni government has concluded a deal with Turkey for drones but that none had yet been delivered as of late July, although Ankara is already training Yemeni drone pilots. Which specific models it’s receiving remains unclear, although it wouldn’t be surprising if Yemeni-operated TB2s appear over that divided country’s battlefields in the near future.
Saudi Arabia’s possession of at least some Akincis is also interesting. In the 2010s, the kingdom and some of the other Arab Gulf states turned to China for armed drones since the United States refused to sell them any at the time. By 2021, Saudi Arabia reached a deal with Turkey to co-produce its Karayel-SU drone under license from its Turkish manufacturer Vestel Savunma. Two years later, Riyadh ordered an unspecified number of Akinci drones as part of what manufacturer Baykar described as “the biggest defense and aviation export contract” in Turkish history. The grand deal included technology transfer and a joint production agreement. The first Saudi air force personnel trained to operate the advanced drone graduated in Turkey in October 2025. The shooting down of one over Yemen indicates that at least some are now in Saudi service.
The United Arab Emirates also acquired and operated Chinese-made Wing Loong II armed drones in the 2010s. It even deployed some to Libya on the side of Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army in the east, which fought the UN-recognized Turkish-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli, which Ankara backed through a decisive deployment of TB2 drones. However, by 2022, as its strained ties with Ankara thawed, Abu Dhabi sought Turkish drones and bought far more than it had ever ordered from Beijing. In 2022, reports emerged that it had ordered a whopping 120 TB2s. An Emirati TB2 was shown on video for the first time in late December 2025. Mere weeks later, the UAE’s Edge Group confirmed that the integration of its small Desert Sting 16 guided bomb onto the Turkish-made TB2 was complete. Abu Dhabi has also acquired the Akinci.
While Turkey was at odds with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the 2010s, it retained close ties with Qatar and even deployed troops to the tiny country when Doha faced a blockade led by Abu Dhabi and Riyadh in 2017. Qatar became the first country to buy TB2s in 2018, years before that drone proved itself over several battlefields in 2020, from Libya and Syria to the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, gaining it global recognition. Doha purchased only six, far fewer than its two neighbors would order in the early 2020s. In 2023, Kuwait also ordered 18 TB2 drones as part of a contract valued at $370 million, which began arriving in July 2025, leaving Oman and Bahrain as the only members of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council that have not acquired Turkish drones to date.
Turkey isn’t known to have sold any of these armed drones to its more immediate Arab neighbors of Iraq and Syria. Iraq’s defense minister reportedly said in August 2021 that Baghdad had “reached a consensus” with Ankara over a potential purchase of TB2 drones, along with Turkish-made attack helicopters and electronic warfare systems. Nothing has been reported on any such deal ever since. Much more recently, Iraq reportedly ordered Turkish-made Korkut anti-aircraft guns for countering increased drone threats. Again, it remains to be seen whether it ultimately follows up that acquisition with an order for Bayraktar or other Turkish-made drones.
Next door, post-Assad Syria also isn’t known to have sought Turkish-made drones. With most of its already antiquated air force largely destroyed, it’s conceivable that Damascus may seek some Turkish drones as an interim solution until it can eventually rebuild its fighter fleet almost from scratch. After all, a fleet of TB2s would likely be much cheaper and easier for Damascus to operate than modern fighter jets. Syria’s eastern neighbor Lebanon is reportedly looking at options for high-tech and low-cost defensive weapons that could include Turkish drones, Turkish media reported in July. Additionally, Jordan doesn’t currently operate Turkish-made drones nor, for more obvious reasons, does Israel.
Turkey has had notable success exporting its drones to Arab countries throughout North Africa.
Another country that Turkey was estranged from throughout the 2010s was Egypt. As with Gulf heavyweights Saudi Arabia and the UAE, relations between Ankara and Cairo improved markedly in the 2020s. Turkey has resumed selling arms and even entered into co-production agreements for locally assembling its drones in Egypt. Such military cooperation has alarmed Israel, which is increasingly distrustful of Turkey’s intentions in the region. In early 2026, satellite images revealed Akinci drones deployed in southern Egypt for executing strikes against the Rapid Support Forces fighting in the bloody civil war in neighboring Sudan. The RSF claimed to have shot down at least four of them. Turkey is known to have supplied Sudan’s military with TB2 drones after the country’s current civil war began in April 2023.
Egypt’s neighbor Tunisia is another customer of Turkish-made drones, buying six Anka-S medium-altitude, long-endurance drones built by Turkish Aerospace Industries in 2020.
Libya is an interesting case. As mentioned above, Turkey’s deployment of TB2s in the country’s civil war in 2020 proved decisive, with these drones helping break the LNA’s siege on Tripoli and empowering GNA ground forces to repel Haftar’s fighters. Libya has remained divided since. However, relations between Turkey and Haftar markedly improved in the intervening years. While Turkey provided Tripoli with TB2s and at least one Akinci, satellite images in August confirmed what was previously speculated here in April; Turkey has also deployed Akincis in LNA-controlled eastern Libya, with at least two spotted at Al-Khadim airbase. Such a provision would have seemed unthinkable in 2020.
Algeria’s experience with Turkish drones was interesting. In the early 2020s, when Turkey entered into a contract to sell TB2s to Algeria’s neighbor and rival, Morocco, Algiers reacted angrily. Ankara responded by encouraging it to buy Turkish drones too. Consequently, Algeria ordered the TAI Anka-S and the larger, twin-engine Aksungur.
In the span of a few years, and again with some notable exceptions in the Gulf and Levant, Turkey has sold its homegrown drones to most of the Arab World, stretching from Qatar jutting into the Persian Gulf all the way to Morocco bordering the Atlantic Ocean.
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