Turkish source confirmed that new intelligence-gathering unmanned aerial vehicles, known as the Anka-I, to have been used during the Turkish military operation in Syrian Afrin, codenamed “Operation Olive Branch”.
But Turkish officials said that new Anka-I unmanned aerial vehicle has only started tests at the Akinci Air Base on the northwest of Ankara.
The first photo of a new variant of the Anka-I unmanned aerial vehicle, designed for signals intelligence (SIGINT) and communications intelligence (COMINT) missions, was posted on Twitter by Turkey’s Undersecretariat of Defence Industries (SSM).
The advanced unmanned aerial vehicle is equipped with synthetic aperture radar systems, precise direction finding and geolocation system, analog and digital modulation recognition and protocol decoding system and module of multi-channel communication signals monitoring and recording demodulated signals.
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The new Anka-I unmanned aerial vehicle has a range of at least 4600 km (combat range – 200 km) and an endurance of 18 hours; a maximum speed of 217 km/h; have a cruise altitude of 35,000 ft.
The Anka is a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system, primarily manufactured to meet the reconnaissance and surveillance requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces. It was designed and developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).
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The bases UAV system, which is designed for night and day missions including adverse weather conditions, performs real-time image intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, moving/stationery target detection, recognition, identification, and tracking missions.