Italy's Leonardo and Turkey's Baykar team up on combat drones
Italian defence company Leonardo and Turkey's drone specialist Baykar have agreed to cooperate on the development of combat drones in Italy, the companies announced on Thursday.
After several months of negotiations, the two companies signed an agreement to establish a joint venture for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to supply the market in Europe.
Leonardo's chief executive Roberto Cingolani estimated the European market for unmanned fighters, armed surveillance drones and deep strike drones to reach $100 billion over the next decade.
Leonardo is also involved in the development of the European drone Eurodrone alongside Airbus and Dassault.
The Turkish Baykar group is already one of the largest drone manufacturers worldwide. The group's chief executive Selçuk Bayraktar is a son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Baykar aims to benefit from Leonardo's expertise in mission systems, payloads and certification, the company said, while expanding their worldwide presence.
Last year, Baykar started building a factory near Kiev to produce either its TB2 or TB3 drone models. Ukrainian forces actively used the TB2s against the Russian invasion.
Meanwhile, Leonardo has already established a joint venture with Germany's largest arms manufacturer, Rheinmetall, to produce tanks specialist bridge-laying vehicles.
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