On September 25, 2026, Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar announced that 15 pilots and 15 technicians from the Royal Saudi Naval Forces had graduated from Bayraktar AKINCI training in Türkiye. The graduation of Saudi naval personnel marks a step toward the deployment of Türkiye’s combat UAV in a naval warfare role.
The notable detail in Baykar’s latest graduation announcement is not just the aircraft, but the service branch on the trainees’ uniforms. The 30 personnel who completed training on the Bayraktar AKINCI unmanned combat aircraft belong to the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. Their graduation puts a naval dimension on a programme often discussed primarily as a combat-drone purchase.
In a X post on 25 September, Baykar said that 15 pilot trainees and 15 mechanical and electronic technician trainees had completed their courses at its Çorlu Flight Training and Test Center in Türkiye. The company did not say when the Saudi Navy would begin operating the aircraft or disclose details of its planned missions.
The training follows the AKINCI agreement signed during the Turkish President’s visit to Jeddah in July 2023. Baykar described it as the largest defence and aerospace export contract in Türkiye’s history. The aircraft were intended for both the Saudi air force and navy, with training, technical support and logistics included in the arrangement. While media reports have estimated the contract value at approximately $3 billion, official details regarding the final price, batch size, and delivery schedule remain undisclosed.
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The Bayraktar AKINCI has already been used in combat operations and has served with several countries in reconnaissance, surveillance and strike roles. It has also demonstrated air-to-air engagement capability. Its planned use by the Royal Saudi Naval Forces would bring the UCAV into a different operational setting, with missions focused on maritime surveillance and, potentially, strikes against targets at sea.
For a navy, AKINCI’s first advantage may be the time it can spend watching the sea. Baykar’s published specifications give it more than 24 hours of endurance, an operational altitude of 30,000 feet and a payload capacity of up to 1,500 kg. With suitable sensors and communications, an aircraft of this kind could patrol a wide maritime area, track contacts and pass information to ships or shore-based commanders. It would not need to launch a weapon to be useful.
Its payload also allows for heavier weapons than those carried by smaller tactical drones. The SOM stand-off cruise missile has been listed among AKINCI’s potential weapons, while the aircraft has undergone firing tests with Roketsan’s UAV-230 and UAV-300 supersonic missiles. Most relevant to naval operations, a UAV-300 launched from AKINCI struck a maritime target more than 250 km away in a September 2026 test over the Black Sea. That figure is a demonstrated test distance, not a published maximum range, and a 250 km standoff distance exceeds the effective engagement range of air defense systems found on most surface combatants worldwide.
The combination of long patrol time and stand-off weapons offers an apparent choice: keep an aircraft on station to build a recognised maritime picture (RMP), then use it as a strike platform if a target is identified and an appropriate weapon is available. It could also receive targeting information from elsewhere rather than finding every target itself.
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