The Truth About Ukraine's Bayraktar TB2 Drone: Project Ukraine

Video killed the radio star. Have Drones killed the Tank? In this military analysis we learn about how the Bayraktar TB2 Drone was created and its implementation on the battlefield.

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[orhan]

There is a lot of misunderstanding regarding the TB2 and it's philosophy. It is not a hyper-sophisticated, uber-expensive weapon system that wins wars. It is the Toyota Corolla of drones. It's not your favorite sports car. It is cheap, reliable, expandable, easy to operate / easy to maintain and will do 90% of your daily errands. Sure there are better drones such as the Global Hawks, Predators, Reapers or Wing Loongs, which are more than twice or three times the size (more easily detected and 5-7 times as costly). You can disassamble a TB2, move it with a flatbed truck, assemble it back, and take off from any road in 30 minutes. Try doing that with a Global Hawk. You wouldn't worry about losing a few TB2s in return of destroying your enemies morale, and supply columns. And the most damage is not caused by the TB2's micro munitions: the most damage is caused by ground artillery and rocket sytems which hit targets designated by the TB2. And if you want to hit a TB2 which can fly at 6-7000 meters altitude and fire weapons from 18 km which is beyond manpads or anti-aircraft gun territory, you need to shoot a very expensive medium-long range air defense missiles at it, more costly than the drone itself ! Yeah you can kill it, but you will go bankrupt doing that.

[AntonioDal.]

Another huge advantage of those lightweight drones: they don't need an airfield. A flat long road through someones farmland could do the job and the drones could be stored in a barn. Airfields are typical targets during war like we saw in Ukraine.

[AttilaSATAN]

2:10 That's not a TB1 it's an Akıncı; Tactical Armed Unmanned Arial Vehicle. It's closer to Global Hawk than a Predator. It's a Turkish unique concept for delivering havier payloads (I mean JDAM-sized ammo), air defense, radar coverage, and also for carrying cruise missiles for deep penetration operations.

[lenevohd]

Turkish Drones the best Great respect from

[SvdSinner]

A big part you glossed over is this new war equipment economy. The US has routinely opted for ultra-high dollar equipment that is "the best" Things like the TB2 and the NLAW are proving the viability of weapon systems that are almost as good at a fraction of the price. Exploring this would be a great video topic.

[dikasaja]

Losing drone is pilot experience, losing jet fighter is pilot loss.

[andreassonne]

A thing that you failed to mention about the TB2 is that because it's smaller that other drones of its type and constructed almost completely out of reinforced fiberglass, which gives it a very small radar signature, so it is hard to detect and accurately track.

[spyro]

One feature of TB2 is psychological pressure. An invisible weapon is hovering above you 24 hours a day and night, and you hear an unexpected whistle and you have only 7 seconds to escape. Imagine the deadly psychological pressure on soldiers in the field.

[alitiner]

The image you show on 2:09 is not a bayraktar TB1, it is a Bayraktar Akinci, which is a newer, heavier and more advanced and expensive drone developed by the same company. Bayraktar TB1 was just the prototype for TB2.

[KonigGustavAdolph]

The Bayraktar TB2 is a good example of why it is good to pay attention to small/regional conflicts. @5:40 you will notice the Azerbaijani flag in the upper left hand corner. Azerbaijan used these to tremendous effect against mostly outdated Soviet/Russian equipment during the 2nd Karabakh War in Fall '20.

[nathanruben]

tb2 has changed the outcome of two confilcts, the nogorno karabakh and libya conflicts. The kills of tb2 are well documented with video footage. Hundred if not thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, air defence systems, ew systems and radars...Even tb2 has shot down a large enemy cargo aircraft while it was closing in to airport.

[simpsons]

Bayraktar is possibly the only drone which has actual battle field experience and is actually the only drone which has determined the course of a war (Armenian defeat ) . Now the updated version is much more lethal and practically unstoppable by current anti aircraft systems .

[neosinan]

Both Wing Loon 2 and TB2 was deployed in Libyan civil war a couple years ago. While TB2 showed its effectiveness in battlefield, Wing loon 2 failed miserable and Turkish Laser weapons shoot them down.

[blackkyiv]

2:10 - it's not a Bayraktar TB1, it's Turkey's new Bayraktar Akinci drone.

Also comparison between MQ-9 Reaper and Bayraktar TB2 is not valid, because those are different classes of drones, where TB2 is a small drone, that is mostly meant for recon with occasional high precision strikes, while Reaper is for strikes. The far better comparison for Reaper is the mentioned above drone, Akinci, because it is way more similar to Reaper in terms of size, payload capacity, range and its main purpose.

[adamd.]

The drone has proven itself to be honest. I first noticed them in the conflict in Libya. Where the did the impossible. Helping the GNA who almost lost the civil war, gaining more ground on the LNA. We saw the first vids circulating on the internet of this drone in action destroying Russian air defense systems. Which was totally insane to see. Then we saw them being used in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, were these drones also preformed great. Now in Ukraine, the even made a song about the drone. Strange to see how a country like Turkey because of some export ban turned into a drone power house out of the sudden. The impact of these small drones was huge. It played a major role in multiple bigger conflicts. I am pretty curious to see how the TB-3 will preform, which is also capable to land on an aircraft carrier. Which also will be pretty revolutionary.

[MrEvansjethro]

The US didn't want to sell to Turkey and the Turkish prime minister said they had to make their own. Moreover, Turkey said when their allies don't want to sell them military equipments, they obviously have to buy them from Russia.

[historywithhilbert]

I did wonder this, in particular after hearing how effective these drones were in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. Thanks for your take on their usage in Ukraine!

[loumencken]

The most important thing about the TB2 not discussed in the video? That those inward-canted twin rear stabilizers look extremely cool.

[huseyinkilic]

Thank you for honestly saying that Turkey had to manufacture the drone itself, which it could not buy due to the embargo. As a NATO member country, I am still dealing with a lot of ridiculous embargoes. For example F35.. And the USA is increasingly supporting anti-Turkey groups, very interesting!?

[Nicat_Qrbnv]

when TB2 are used in hybrid operations it increases its lethality 10 times. For example, Azerbaijan turned cheap planes (kukruznik) which used in agriculture into remote controlled planes. The army used it as a bait. When Russian S400 systems shot down them TB2s detected them, gave the coordinates to Harops (Isreali drones) and continued to search for other enemy objects to shoot down by itself.

TB2s are very effective against S400 (Russian air defense systems). It is ironic that Turkey bought S400 from Russian at all costs, even at cost of angering allies and get sanctions, but never used them. Meanwhile Turkey was preparing TB2s.