Bayraktar TB3
Country: 
TurkeyManufacturer: Baykar
Navalised and uprated TB2 variant with folding wings, designed to operate from the light carrier TCG Anadolu: the world's first armed UAV to take off and land on a short-deck ship without catapult.
Navalised and uprated TB2 variant with folding wings, designed to operate from the light carrier TCG Anadolu: the world's first armed UAV to take off and land on a short-deck ship without catapult.
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Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- Bayraktar TB3
- Alias
- TB3 (versione navale)
- Manufacturer
- Baykar
- Country
- Turkey
- Year
- 2024
- Category
- UCAV (Combat UAV)
- Class
- MALE (Medium-altitude / long-endurance)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 460 km
- Endurance
- 32 h
- Top speed
- 260 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 9,100 m
- Propulsion
- Pistone PD-170 turbo, 170 hp, elica spintore
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 1450 kg
- Payload
- 280 kg
- Hardpoints
- 6
- Weapons
- MAM-L, MAM-T, Bozok, Tolun, Kemankeş
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- ASELSAN CATS EO/IR + radar SAR/GMTI opzionale
- Datalink / control
- SATCOM + LOS 250 km
- Launch
- Pista corta / portaerei a ponte corto (LHD TCG Anadolu)
- Recovery
- Pista corta / appontaggio
Production & inventory
- Estimated inventory
- 30+ in produzione (2024-25)
Combat use
- ▸Demonstration operations from TCG Anadolu (2024-)
- ▸Maritime patrol in the Eastern Mediterranean
Tags
Main operators
History
Developed after Turkey's exclusion from the F-35B programme, the TB3 solves the carrier-aviation problem of TCG Anadolu, originally designed for the US STOVL jets.
The first operational landing on TCG Anadolu took place in November 2024, marking a milestone in UAV carrier history.
The Bayraktar TB3 is Turkey's industrial answer to its exclusion from the F-35 Lightning II programme: designed with folding wings for carrier landings, it is the world's first armed MALE drone able to take off and land from a short-deck ship without catapult or arrestor cable.
The TB3 was born out of the TCG Anadolu (L-400) naval programme, originally conceived as a STOVL carrier for US F-35Bs: after the 2019 US delivery ban, Baykar reconfigured the ship as a 'drone carrier' by developing a navalised and uprated TB2 in just four years.
Its first operational deck landing in November 2024 marked a historic turning point in carrier UAV warfare and made Turkey the first nation in the world to operate a fully UAV aircraft carrier in active service.