Turkish Drones Threaten Greek Tank Forces

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Turkish drones could tilt the strategic balance in Ankara’s favor and tempt Erdogan to attempt military action against Greece. Erdogan may see Greek land forces and perhaps naval forces as vulnerable to the asymmetrical nature of drones (less expensive than a tank, while not exposing an operator to death). This de-stabilizing development stems from three sources: Turkey has a significant inventory of armed military drones; those drones have begun to be battle tested in places such as Libya, Northern Iraq, Syria, and Azerbaijan; Turkey has the ability to replace lost drones with an active domestic production line unhindered by a reliance on foreign technology. One report has even placed Turkish drones on the Greek border in connection with illegal border crossings. Turkey, along with China, has become the world’s leaders in the manufacture of armed drones also known as Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs).

Greek military strategists would be well served to take heed of the threat to long-established presumptions introduced by armed drones.

HISTORY

Perhaps the impetus for developing drones came from Turkey’s ongoing fight against its Kurdish fellow citizens. Turkey was not always a dominant manufacturer of combat drones. In 1995, Turkey purchased U.S.-developed General Atomics Gnat 750s. It later acquired Israeli-made IAIs in 2010. In 2010, relations between the U.S. and Turkey took a turn for the worse as a result of an Israeli raid on an aid flotilla that left nine Turks dead. Under Congressional opposition, Turkey was unable to acquire U.S.-made Predators and thereafter Reapers. The Guardian reports that Turkey was able to circumvent U.S. export restrictions with the assistance of a missile component developed in the United Kingdom. Around 2015, Turkey acquired the Hornet missile rack devised by EDO MBM Technology, a firm on the outskirts of Brighton. A Turkish spokesman denied this published allegation. That same year, Turkey’s achieved its first armed UAV flight when aTB2 successfully test fired a rocket from 16,000 feet which hit its target.

While Pakistan was the first nation to conduct a drone strike on its own soil, Turkey soon followed in 2016 with 72 Kurdish militants killed in the first two months of operations. One report puts the death toll of Kurdish militants at 400.

AZERBAIJAN

Drone strike footage provided by Azerbaijan suggests it is using Turkish TB2 Bayraktar UCAC drones. This year, these same drones have been used with success by Turkey in both Libyan and Syrian conflicts – where the Anka-S is also deployed. Whether the Turkish military is operating these drones – as some have suggested – is irrelevant to the issue that Turkey may be gaining strategic superiority over Greek land forces. The National Interest reported earlier in 2020 that the Turkish military operates about 130 armed drones of several types (the Anka, Karayel and Bayraktar TB2).

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