Qatar News Agency said on Friday that Turkey was preparing to hand over to Qatar 6 unmanned combat aerial vehicles (Bayraktar TB2) as part of a deal signed in 2018.
The announcement referred to Doha’s successive efforts in the arms race and its desperate attempts to break its international isolation following the decision of the Arab boycott in June 2017 to protest Qatar’s support for terrorism and extremism.
Turkish media reported that 55 members of the Qatari regime had received training to work on the new planes by the Turkish Air Force, where Qatari pilots received graduation certificates at a ceremony last week at the Baykar training center in the northwestern Turkish city of Edirne.
At the DIMDEX 2018 exhibition in Doha, Turkish media revealed that Qatar had purchased the TB2 UCAV, produced by Baykar Makina. In addition to the drones and the control stations, Qatar will receive a UAV operation center. The agreement marked the first export order for the TB2. Earlier this year, Ukraine confirmed that it will also acquire the TB2, with a purchase of up to a dozen of the UCAVs.