Why Ukraine's Once-Feared Bayraktar Drones Are Becoming Obsolete

Turkey's Bayraktar TB2 drones are falling out of favor among Ukrainian forces as the battle for uncrewed dominance picks up pace above the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine.

The TB2, made by Turkish defense manufacturer Baykar, was quick to impress in the first months of the war. The medium-altitude, long-endurance drone soared over the battlefield as both a surveillance asset and an attack drone, and it became a symbol of Ukrainian uncrewed fighting in the initial weeks of conflict.

But its sudden disappearance as the conflict advanced raised eyebrows and questions about its continuing usefulness to Ukraine's drone-savvy forces.

The TB2 took advantage of Russia's disorganization as it launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But once Moscow caught on, the TB2s lost the element of surprise they had been able to capitalize on, say analysts and members of Ukraine's military.

The TB2 and similar models of drones were designed mainly to observe and to direct other strike weapons, according to U.K.-based drone expert Steve Wright. Modifying the TB2 to add strike capabilities scored "some early wins" for Ukraine in an airspace that did not yet have any serious air defense capabilities, he told Newsweek.

"The Russian forces have now got wise to its weaknesses, and it is being forced back to its less glamorous core missions of assisting other forces and weapons," Wright said.

Ukraine is finding it increasingly difficult to wield the drones effectively on the battlefield, Ukrainian sources have also suggested.

"They were very useful at the beginning of the full-scale war," said Andriy Pidlisnyi, a captain in one of Ukraine's reconnaissance battalions. But now that Russia has bolstered its air defenses, Kyiv deploys the once-heralded TB2s largely for reconnaissance, he told Newsweek.

It appears to be a feeling shared among others in Ukraine's armed forces. "For the TB2, I don't want to use the word useless, but it is hard to find situations where to use them," said Ukrainian colonel Volodymyr Valiukh, according to Defense News.

"We are extremely grateful for the TB2s, but at the beginning of the war they were deployed more," Valiukh told the magazine in late October.

The TB2's vulnerability to more advanced air defense systems was evident before the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine, according to Samuel Bendett of the U.S.-based Center for Naval Analyses. The TB2 may still be used as a way to collect intelligence and for reconnaissance missions and "as a guide for other drones," he told Newsweek.

"Currently, the Bayraktar TB2s are mainly used to conduct daily flights to track the targets, which can be as valuable as attacking," Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar told Defense News.

Newsweek has reached out to Baykar by email for additional comment.

Between February 2022 and the start of last month, Ukraine lost a confirmed 24 Bayraktar TB2s, according to Oryx, a Dutch open-source intelligence outlet. However, the true tally is likely to be much higher, as this count only includes visually verified losses.

But the TB2 is just one model in Ukraine's vast cache of uncrewed vehicles. The Ukraine war has seen an acceleration of drone technology development, with both Kyiv and Moscow funneling resources into the rapid production and improvement of unmanned aerial vehicles, ground vehicles and a fleet of naval drones.

Kyiv has built up an "army of drones," and its drone tsar, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, has said that the country is on the path to becoming "a world leader in drones production."

"I don't think that there is any doubt that Ukraine is winning the drone conflict," Wright told Newsweek in early August.

But Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of War Studies at King's College London, said the gap between Russia's and Ukraine's drone fleets is narrowing.

"Russia has been somewhat behind in drones, but it is slowly catching up," she told Newsweek in August.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.