The drone was first spotted near Makaou, Iran, and was last spotted near Van, Turkey.
Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi, president of Iran, died after the Bell 212 helicopter he was on board crashed in the mountains of the Jolfa region in eastern Azerbaijan. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also on board the crashed helicopter.
The helicopter navigated through dense fog and harsh weather and crashed in the Jofa mountains just minutes after taking off. A massive search operation was launched, with neighboring states – Türkiye, Iraq and Azerbaijan offering help. The Turkish drone Bayraktar Akinci reportedly found the wreckage of the helicopter in northern Iran, near the border with Azerbaijan.
AKINCI01 – the drone’s call sign, detected heat signatures as it hovered over the crash site this morning. The drone was first spotted near Makaou, Iran, and was last spotted near Van, Turkey, where it drew a crescent moon in its flight path, which was detected in its flight path by tracking websites open source flight software.
The combat trajectory of the Akinci drone according to Flightradar24
The Akinci drones
The Akinci’s manufacturer, Bayraktar, claims the drone is capable of performing operations that a fighter jet can perform. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can be used for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat operations. It has 24-hour airtime and reaches an altitude of 40,000 feet. It has a navigation system with internal sensor fusion, which can work without relying on GPS.
The other home-built drones
Bayraktar TB2, Turkey’s homegrown drone, is a medium-altitude tactical armed drone that has a maximum ceiling of 25,000 feet and can remain airborne for 27 hours. The Bayraktar TB2 is also the first aircraft in its category to be exported abroad.
It is operated by Qatar, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and 30 other countries. Features fully automatic navigation and route tracking, precision automatic takeoff and landing supported by internal sensor fusion, fully automatic taxiing and parking, support for semi-autonomous flight modes
Bayraktar TB3 is an armed unmanned aerial vehicle system currently being indigenously developed by Baykar and capable of taking off and landing on short-field aircraft carriers. In addition to reconnaissance and intelligence missions, the Bayraktar TB3 can launch an assault operation with smart munitions parked under its wings.
Bayraktar TB2 drones have been spotted on Ukraine’s armor in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Drones reportedly decimated Russian tanks and infantry in the early stages of the war, but as the conflict progressed, the Russians focused on ways to combat drone threats and the use of the TB2 slowly faded.
Turkey’s relationship with the US and Russia is a curious case. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to acquire the Russian S-400 missile defense system and the American F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter at the same time.
This story originally appeared on Ndtv.com read the full story
