SAUDI Arabia signed a deal to purchase Turkiye’s most advanced combat drone to date
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s visit to Saudi Arabia resulted in the signing of an executive defense cooperation between the two countries.
Erdogan arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday as part of his three-nation tour in the gulf region which kicked off this week.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomed the Turkish leader who was accompanied by an entourage of some 200 businesspeople.
The defense ministers of both countries signed an executive plan for defense cooperation which include the purchase of Turkiye’s most advanced drone known as the Bayraktar Akinci.
Akinci, which is the Turkish word for “Raider,” is a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) with heavy firepower and is capable of performing air-to-ground and air-to-air attack missions.
The CEO of Turkish defense company Baykar described the deal as the “largest defense and aviation export contract in the history of the Republic of Turkiye,” without disclosing the exact amount of the sale.
The deal made Saudi Arabia the third country in the Gulf region to have purchased the Turkish Baykar drones after Qatar and Kuwait.
Turkiye aims to secure billions of dollars worth of foreign investments after Erdogan’s visit to the region.
Both sides also signed several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in many fields, including energy, direct investments, and defense industries.
