Turkey has integrated a new radar into its Anka unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) to deploy drones in the Black Sea to detect floating naval mines that have been found recently in the Black Sea amid Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Ismail Demir, head of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB), made the related statement via his Twitter account Tuesday, saying that this particular drone will be used to detect mines so they can be defused by Turkey’s elite Underwater Defense (SAS) teams.

Demir said that they integrated the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) into the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI)-made Anka UCAVs already added to the Turkish Naval Forces Command (DzKK) inventory.

The SAR was developed by Turkish defense giant Aselsan and is an airborne radar system used for high-resolution ground imaging and detection of moving targets on the ground.

SAR systems are valuable in airborne surveillance applications, allowing for effective 24/7 imaging under all kinds of adverse weather conditions.

Turkey has so far found three stray naval mines in the Black Sea that have been defused by SAS teams.

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of laying mines in the Black Sea, and in late March, Turkish and Romanian military diving teams defused stray mines around their waters.

The Black Sea is bordered by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey, as well as Ukraine and Russia, which have been at war since President Vladimir Putin's troops invaded the country's southern neighbor on Feb. 24.

The Black Sea is a major shipping artery for grain, oil and oil products. It is connected to the Marmara and then the Mediterranean Sea via the Bosporus, which runs through the heart of Istanbul – Turkey's largest city with 16 million residents – and then the Dardanelles further southwest.