Baykar Says Kızılelma Will Enter Türkiye Service as Indonesia Signs First Export Deal
By Bosphorus News Defense Desk
Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar said the company aims to place its Bayraktar Kızılelma unmanned combat aircraft into service for Türkiye this year, marking a new phase for one of the country's most ambitious defense aviation programs.
"Serial production was completed last year and our goal this year is to place Kızılelma into service for Türkiye," Bayraktar said in remarks carried by Anadolu Agency.
The statement came after Baykar signed Kızılelma's first export agreement during SAHA 2026 in Istanbul. The deal covers 12 aircraft for Indonesia, with first deliveries targeted from 2028.
"We have signed the first export agreement for 12 Bayraktar Kızılelma aircraft," Bayraktar said. "We aim to begin the first deliveries in 2028."
The Indonesian agreement gives Kızılelma its first foreign customer before the aircraft formally enters Turkish service. It also expands a defense relationship that has already made Indonesia one of the most important Asian buyers of advanced Turkish platforms.
The buyer is PT Republik Aero Dirgantara, a company linked to Republikorp. According to the Indonesian side, the agreement is not limited to aircraft delivery. It includes local production, maintenance and repair infrastructure, training, certification, technology transfer and future cooperation on strategic technologies.
That structure matters for Baykar's export model. Kızılelma is being positioned not only as a combat aircraft sale, but as part of a wider industrial partnership with countries seeking to build their own unmanned aviation capacity.
Kızılelma has moved through a series of high-profile tests over the past year. Baykar said two Kızılelma prototypes completed an autonomous close formation flight on December 28, 2025. The company has also reported manned-unmanned teaming work with F-16 aircraft, including a simulated electronic firing process using TÜBİTAK SAGE's GÖKDOĞAN beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile after target detection and lock with ASELSAN's MURAD AESA radar.
Baykar lists Kızılelma with an 8.5-ton maximum takeoff weight, 1.5-ton payload capacity, a 45,000-foot service ceiling and low radar cross-section design. The aircraft is designed to operate as a jet-powered unmanned combat system with air-to-air and air-to-ground roles.
The Kızılelma export also came as Baykar Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar used SAHA 2026 to frame Türkiye's defense technology push in broader political terms. He called for a "Technological Solidarity Alliance" among allied and developing countries against global technology monopolies.
"We must establish an unshakable Technological Solidarity Alliance by sharing the high technologies we develop with friendly, brotherly and oppressed peoples," Bayraktar said, according to Anadolu Agency.
The language gives political framing to the company's industrial expansion. For Baykar, Indonesia is not only a first Kızılelma buyer. It is also a test case for a model built around export, training, local capability and long-term technology cooperation.
The program now faces two practical benchmarks. The first is Kızılelma's entry into Turkish service in 2026. The second is whether the Indonesia agreement can turn the aircraft's first export success into a broader production and partnership model for Türkiye's next generation unmanned combat aviation industry.
***Sources: Anadolu Agency, Baykar, Republikorp, Daily Sabah.