Transform into a "bomb truck"? Footage of Türkiye's TB2 drone carrying 16 FPVs at once exposed

Turkish military industrialist Beika released the latest test video on the 4th, showing that up to 16 FPV suicide attack drones are mounted under the wings of the TB2 drone. (Taken from Baika official website)

[Reporter Tu Jumin/Comprehensive Report] The Turkish TB2 drone (Bayraktar TB2), which shined in the early days of the Russia-Ukraine war, now has a new purpose. Turkish military industrialist Baika released its latest test video on the 4th, showing that up to 16 FPV suicide attack drones were mounted under the wings of the TB2 drone, and 2 of them were successfully released to destroy ground targets. This shows that TB2 is transforming from a traditional precision strike platform to an aerial combat platform that can carry, deploy and command small drones.

The foreign military news website "Defense Blog" reported that according to a video released by the Baykar company, the TB2 drone took off from the Keşan Flight Training and Test Center in northwest Turkey. Eight Skydagger first-person perspective (FPV) attack drones were mounted on each side of the wings, for a total of 16. After arriving in the test airspace, TB2 released two of them. The ground operators used the data link provided by TB2 to remotely control the FPV drones to dive and attack. Both of them successfully hit the target and detonated.

FPV drones have the advantages of low price and flexible operation. Such weapons have been widely used in the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield to attack military targets such as tanks and armored vehicles. However, due to the communication distance, it is usually difficult to penetrate deep into the enemy's rear. Haluk Bayraktar, CEO of Baika, pointed out in a media interview that the general operating distance of FPV drones is about 15 kilometers. If carried by TB2 drones and provided with communication relay support, the overall strike range is expected to extend to thousands of kilometers.

However, this is not the range of the FPV drone itself, but a concept that combines the range and communication capabilities of the mother aircraft. The actual performance still needs to be verified.

In fact, Russia and Ukraine have used large drones to carry small FPV drones in recent years to perform reconnaissance and attack missions. Baika also signed a cooperation agreement with the Croatian drone operator ORQA as early as 2024 to promote the technological integration of FPV drones and TB2. This test further demonstrated that existing military drones can be modified to develop new uses different from traditional ground attacks.