The Pakistan Air Power (PAF) Chief of Air Workers (CAS), Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu, visited Türkiye in Could 2026 at an official invitation.
Through the journey, the CAS met with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Güler, Turkish Air Power Commander Normal Ziya Cemal Kadioglu, and Baykar Applied sciences Group Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar.
The Directorate Normal of Public Relations (DGPR) acknowledged that the assembly with Bayraktar “centered on developments in aerospace innovation, unmanned aerial methods, and rising applied sciences.”
Notably, amongst all Turkish defence unique gear producers (OEMs), the CAS met solely with Baykar. He didn’t go to Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), Aselsan, Roketsan, or another agency.
The selective nature of the go to raises an fascinating query: why has Baykar, a private-sector drone producer, emerged because the PAF’s most well-liked Turkish aerospace associate, particularly provided that TAI maintains a deeper institutional relationship with Ankara, a broader product catalogue comprising of drones and crewed platforms alike, and its personal subsidiary in Pakistan?
Modest Procurements, Robust Ambitions
The PAF’s relationship with Baykar started with modest however significant procurements. By April 2022, the PAF had fielded 4 Bayraktar TB2 medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned fight aerial automobiles (UCAVs) at Murid alongside two floor management station (GCS) units.
The Bayraktar Akıncı-B adopted in 2022–2023, giving the PAF its first twin-engine heavy MALE platform. Quwa estimates the present Akıncı fleet at two to 4 models, a small quantity however in line with the PAF’s sample of inducting new plane with the expectation of procuring them in bigger numbers over time.
What’s fascinating about these procurements is just not a lot the platforms themselves, however what they led to. On the again of the TB2 and Akıncı purchases, Baykar arrange a web site on the Nationwide Aerospace Science and Know-how Park (NASTP) and co-developed two unique merchandise with PAF entities: the KaGeM V3 miniature turbojet-powered air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) and loitering munition, and the YiHA loitering munition sequence. Neither product was a part of Baykar’s current catalogue; each have been designed round PAF necessities.
The connection then shifted structurally.
Baykar wound down its embedded presence at NASTP and established Baykar Applied sciences Pakistan (baykartech.pk) as a direct subsidiary to have interaction Air Headquarters (AHQ) and the broader Pakistani drone and loitering munitions market. On 5 December 2025, Bloomberg reported that Türkiye and Pakistan have been in talks to ascertain a drone meeting plant, with discussions having “superior considerably.” Bloomberg particularly talked about “stealth” drones, a reference that might solely level to the Bayraktar Kızılelma.
Baykar Applied sciences Pakistan has since been on a hiring spree for engineers, suggesting in-country improvement and manufacturing slightly than ultimate meeting alone.
The CAS’s Could 2026 go to to Baykar and the deliberate exclusion of different Turkish OEMs from his schedule are the latest indicators of the place this relationship is heading.
