The new downing of a Turkish drone by Russian anti-aircraft in the Ukraine war has dealt yet another big blow to the long-earned reputation of the Turkish defence industry.
The recent visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Saudi Arabia can also be considered a historical revenge of the largest Arab country in the Gulf. During the Ottoman Empire, the Arabs suffered under the occupiers until the beginning of the 20th century, when it was liberated.
King Abdul Aziz Al Saud established Saudi Arabia.
A century later, the financially strapped Sultan wannabe hastened to pay his respects to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for injections of liquidity that would allow his country to keep going without financially failing - and along with it his neo-Ottoman plans.
To be sure, Turkish propaganda has emphasised the contract signed with the Baykar company for the supply of – an unknown number of – Akinci-class drones. This is the company owned by Erdoğan's son-in-law that presented its new Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which have not yet been tested in the field.
The Turkish engineers, however, appear confident that they will do much better than the much-hyped TB2 Bayraktars, whose reliability crashed on the Ukrainian field.
In fact, we heard no news of their achievements against Russian forces. In fact, there are many publications from authoritative media that state that in the first two weeks of the war in Ukraine, all Bayraktars were shot down by Russian anti-aircraft.
Despite this, the Ukrainians seem to have insisted on investing in Bayraktar for many months in the context of the multi-frontal struggle to weaken Russia's relationship with Turkey, which has been going from strength to strength.
The hoax on October 13, when Russian cyber pranksters Vovan and Lexus impersonated US Officials and recorded senior Ukrainian official Serhiy Pashynskyi criticising the Bayraktar TB-2 in an online interview, stands out as particularly telling.
Pashynskyi is a member of parliament of Ukraine and chairman of the National Security and Defence Committee of the Council of Ukraine. Pashynskyi thought he was talking to former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.
He said, "Bayraktar has more PR and corruption than combat use."
The latest blow to the reliability of Turkish drones came just earlier this week. The images are of the downing of a TB2 Bayraktar in the Kherson area by Russian anti-aircraft.
This particular drone appears to have been shot down without even completing its mission, after carrying all the missiles it was equipped with.
What is unknown is how many more drones of the type there are – if any – available to the Ukrainian armed forces. What is known, however, is that now the Ukrainians do not consider them at least as reliable tools on the field.
