By Giulia Segreti
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s Leonardo and Turkey’s Baykar announced on Thursday they were setting up a joint venture to produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), as defence companies scramble to respond to the surge in European military spending.
The deal aims to address Europe’s weakness in the drone industry and will take advantage of a European UAV market that the two companies estimated at $100 billion over the next 10 years.
“Europe has a gap in unmanned technologies… and in complicated times like the one we are living in it is fundamental to guarantee global security,” Leonardo Chief Executive Roberto Cingolani told a press conference.
Baykar Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar, the son-in-law of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, said the deal was an “opportunity to build aerial supremacy”, given drones’ key role in the future.
The JV, headquartered in Italy, will use the two companies’ existing facilities, the executives said, adding that they had already started talking with their respective national military forces.
The deal will also give Baykar a bridgehead in Europe, something the group has been planning for a long time.
The Istanbul-based company has become one of the most prolific drone exporters after having gained prominence through their use by Ukraine’s military against Russian forces. In December it bought Italian aircraft producer Piaggio Aerospace.
It produces light and heavy drones, as well as developing the autonomous jet-engine powered ones, and is betting on autonomous air-to-air combat drones taking over the role of fighter jets.
The JV’s first product, expected in about 18 months, will be based on Baykar’s high-altitude, heavy lift drone Akinci, which will then be adapted to customers’ requests.
Cingolani and Bayraktar said that the JV was open, in the future, to providing the drone linked to the next-generation fighter jet developed by the GCAP consortium, but added that it was not the goal of the partnership.
Cingolani also said the new venture was compatible and would not compete with Europe’s Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) drone, first unveiled in 2018 and to be developed with Airbus and Dassault Aviation.
“The Eurodrone programme is an interesting one with a specific, very different, application and mission, and we are obviously committed to that,” the executive said.
(Additional reporting by Can Sezer in Istanbul; editing by Gavin Jones and Keith Weir)
