Drone magnate Baykar entered the list of the top 10 largest Turkish exporters in 2023, making another milestone by becoming the first defense and aerospace company to find its place on the list, its general manager said Saturday.
"Baykar has become one of the 10 largest exporting companies in Türkiye today. We have been the clear export leader in the defense and aerospace industry for the last three years," Haluk Bayraktar said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The "Export Champions Award Ceremony" organized by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) was held in Istanbul on Saturday with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Bayraktar, along with other receivers in three different categories, including the inaugural e-export category, was presented the award by Erdoğan.
The company ranked 10th in the goods exports category. Automaker Ford Otomotiv meanwhile claimed the title of the largest exporter.
"So, how did Baykar, which started out as a venture in the field of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, achieve this success? We set out in the early 2000s with the Bayraktar Mini UAV, a 6 kg aircraft. We invested in R&D for seven years," Bayrakar wrote of the company's journey in a post on X.
"We have not earned even a penny of income in these seven years. We spent all our capital on R&D activities," he noted.
"However, we believed that UAVs would bring about a paradigm shift in the battlefield and would be the technology of the future. We worked day and night with our team, believing that this adventure we set out on would create a sparking effect for our country," he added.
"We climbed the stairs step by step ... We researched, developed and produced nationally and uniquely, we witnessed their entry into the inventory and our national UAVs changing the world," he said.
"Our work, which started with a single drill, has grown. Today we have become a big family of 4,500 people."
"We carried out all our projects entirely with our own resources. We became the export leader with only one product, the Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial combat vehicle," said Bayraktar.
"Now we are making export agreements for Bayraktar Akıncı."
"We have signed export contracts with 34 countries so far. We have become one of the 100 largest companies in the world in the field of defense and aerospace," he added.
Expressing pride and happiness Bayraktar went on to say this pride "belongs to our nation, whose support we always felt."
"We will continue to work to be beneficial to our nation and humanity. Because next in line is Bayraktar Kızılema, our age-old dream and goal," he noted, referring to the company's famed unmanned fighter jet.