7/23/2023 0 Comments Quadcopter drone maker![]() It can communicate at a range of around 186 miles from its ground station and travels at 80 mph to 138 mph. His namesake drone is a fixed-wing plane with modest specifications. The TB2 was developed by MIT graduate Selcuk Bayraktar, who researched advanced vertical landing patterns for drones while at the university. Because the Shahed-136 drones are so cheap to make, estimated at around $20,000, intercepting them with a more expensive missile incurs a cost to the defender. The waves of drone attacks have largely been intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, but some have killed civilians. ![]() These self-detonating drones, which Russia launches in salvos, contain commercial parts from US companies. When Ukraine proved it was capable of holding back the Russian invasion, Russia unleashed a terror campaign against Ukrainian civilians via Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones. ![]() What’s more, as these weapons proliferate, larger powers will increasingly employ them in conventional warfare rather than rely on targeted killings. Garmin, which makes consumer GPS products, released a statement noting that its navigation unit found in TB2s “is not designed or intended for military use, and it is not even designed or intended for use in drones.” But it’s there. Investigations of downed Bayraktars have revealed components sourced from US companies, including a GPS receiver made by Trimble, an airborne modem/transceiver made by Viasat, and a Garmin GNC 255 navigation radio. The TB2 is built in Turkey from a mix of domestically made parts and parts sourced from international commercial markets. To get around export restrictions on drone models and other critical military technologies, Baykar turned to technologies readily available on the commercial market to make a new weapon of war. In that conflict and others, the TB2 has filled a void in the arms market created by the US government’s refusal to export its high-end Predator family of drones. It encompasses all the horrors of war, with the added voyeurism of an unblinking camera.
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