The Anka drone, a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) class unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufactured by a pioneering Turkish defense industry company, is scheduled to commence its operational duties in several other countries in 2023, a company official said Wednesday.

"Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) will ship Anka drones to four other countries this year," Chief Product Engineer Ziya Doğan told Anadolu Agency (AA).

"One overseas customer is actively using Anka drones," Doğan said.

He added that an export deal was signed with another country for the delivery in 2024.

The total flight time of Anka drones delivered to domestic customers reached 200,000 hours, Doğan noted.

The first model of the Anka UAV had its maiden flight in 2010.

Anka performs day and night all-weather reconnaissance, target detection and identification, and intelligence missions, featuring autonomous flight capability, including automatic takeoff and landing

Based in Ankara, the TAI manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles, aircraft, helicopters and satellites and their components.

TAI was established in June 1973 to reduce Türkiye's dependency on foreign suppliers.