Russia interested in buying Turkish drones – The National Interest

Moscow could be on the verge of becoming a buyer of Turkish military hardware – specifically drones.

This week Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said there was no issue in selling the drones, or other Turkish weapons and military equipment, to Russia.

“Turkey is selling its drones to those who need them,” Cavusoglu told the Haber Turk TV channel, according to a report from Tass. A sticking point has been that in 2019 Turkey sold its Bayraktar TB2 UAVs to Ukraine, which planned to equip them with the MAM-L micro-guided munitions.

Director-General of Ukraine’s Ukrspetsexport company, Vadim Nozdrya, said in October 2020 that Kiev was also interested in the joint production of the Bayraktar drones.

Despite the fact that the drones are flying high, Turkey’s Cavusoglu said that the deal with Ukraine should not stand in the way of a potential sale to Russia.

“The deal [with Ukraine] is not aimed against Russia,” Cavusoglu added. “If Russia has the need to buy our products, it can buy them, just like we earlier purchased its S-400 [air defense systems].”

Cavusoglu also reiterated that Turkey continues negotiations with Russia about buying the second regiment of S-400 air defense systems – even as the United States and other NATO partners have publicly protested Ankara’s acquisition of the platform. Turkey was expelled from the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, as the United States has maintained the S-400 and F-35 are not compatible and that if Turkey operated both it would compromise the security of the fifth-generation stealth aircraft.