UAE buys 20 armed drones from Turkey in September

Turkish defense firm Baykar has delivered 20 armed drones to the United Arab Emirates in September after the former foes mended ties throughout the year, Reuters reported.

Saudi Arabia also wanted to buy armed drones and set up a factory to manufacture them, Reuters said. 

A Turkish official told Reuters that Baykar was considering the Saudi request for a manufacturing plant but said that was a strategic decision for President Tayyip Erdogan and that other issues, such as Saudi investments in Turkey, "are not moving as fast as possible."

More than 20 countries already bought Baykar's drones after their success were tested on the battlefield in Syria, Ukraine and Libya.

Baykar currently produces 20 Bayraktar TB2 drones a month, the company’s CEO Haluk Bayraktar said last month, and its order book for those drones and other models was full for the next three years.

While Turkish drones cannot match the technology of the models produced by Israel and the US, they are cheaper and they perform better than Chinese or Iranian drones, analysts said.