Kazakhstan may start producing Turkish UAVs as early as 2024, even earlier than Ukraine
But behind this is an interesting and long history of defense cooperation between the two countries dating back to the 1990s.
At the end of November 2023, the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan announced that the process of selecting a domestic enterprise that will produce reconnaissance and strike drones from Turkey for the national armed forces is already underway. This, in turn, confirms earlier reports that mass production of Turkish ANKA drones will start in Kazakhstan in 2024 as part of an agreement concluded in May 2022 between Kazakhstan Engineering and Turkish Aerospace Industries.
If this is realized, Kazakhstan will become the first foreign country to produce Turkish UAVs at its own facilities. The American analytical institution Jamestown Foundation drew attention to this in its review.
Defense Express adds that if Kazakhstan and Turkey do manage to implement the project described above, it may turn out that the Kazakh defense industry will start producing Turkish UAVs even earlier than Ukraine plans to do so. According to current plans, the opening of the Baykar plant in Ukraine, where Bayraktars will be manufactured, is expected to take place in 2025.
In turn, the Kazakh defense industry’s plans to produce Turkish reconnaissance and strike UAVs are also a logical development of the defense cooperation that Turkey and Kazakhstan have been conducting since the 1990s.
According to the Jamestown Foundation, the history of defense cooperation between Turkey and Kazakhstan dates back to 1993, when Kazakh army officers were given the opportunity to study at Turkish military schools. By 2019, 200 officers from Kazakhstan had undergone such training.
Since the late 1990s, Turkey has also begun to provide small annual grants for projects to modernize the Kazakh army. However, the amount of such grants did not exceed $1 million annually.
However, a real breakthrough in cooperation between the two countries took place in 2011, when the Turkish state-owned company Aselsan and Kazakhstan Engineering established a joint venture, Aselsan Engineering, which manufactures communications equipment, combat modules, automated control systems, and electronic warfare equipment.
Interestingly, the prospects for defense cooperation between Kazakhstan and Turkey are not limited to the production of UAVs. For example, the Kazakh state-owned enterprise Ural Plant Zenit has signed an agreement with the Turkish Defense Ministry’s Asfat and YDA Group to jointly build ships for the Turkish Navy.
But no less interesting is the fact that Kazakhstan is trying to produce or buy drones in cooperation with several countries at once. For example, the Petropavlovsk Heavy Machine Building Plant, in cooperation with China, produces six UAVs for military and civilian use, using Chinese components. In addition, the Kazakh army even uses Russian Orlan-10s.
