TUSAŞ Starts Serial Production of AYAZ Kamikaze Drone
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) has moved its AYAZ jet-powered loitering munition into serial production, the company’s general manager said on the sidelines of the ADEX 2026 defence exhibition in Baku, adding a dedicated kamikaze drone to a Turkish product line that has so far leaned on converted target aircraft.
Speaking to reporters during the Azerbaijan International Defence Exhibition, which ran from September 30 to October 2, TUSAŞ General Manager Dr. Mehmet Demiroğlu said AYAZ had completed its test campaign — including launches from aircraft, catapults, ramps and rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO) boosters — and had already been used in military exercises, according to remarks reported by TurDef and SavunmaSanayiST. He said the aircraft’s range had been extended to more than 300 kilometres, up from the roughly 200 kilometres previously disclosed, and described the design as low-cost and built around a reduced radar signature.
From Target Drone Conversion to Purpose-Built Weapon
AYAZ marks a shift in how TUSAŞ approaches the loitering munition mission. The company’s earlier entries, ŞİMŞEK-K and the faster SÜPER ŞİMŞEK, both started life as high-speed target drones used to test air defence systems before being adapted to carry warheads. AYAZ is the first in the family designed from the outset as a dedicated one-way attack aircraft rather than a repurposed target. TUSAŞ filed a trademark application for “AYAZ Jet Motorlu Kamikaze İHA” (AYAZ Jet-Powered Kamikaze UAV) with Turkey’s Patent and Trademark Office in late 2025, and the programme had its first public showing at SAHA EXPO in Istanbul in May 2026, alongside TUSAŞ’s wider ANKA drone family.
Demiroğlu said the aircraft is the smallest of TUSAŞ’s jet-powered unmanned platforms, which also gives it an edge in unit cost — a factor that matters increasingly in a munition category where loitering weapons are expected to be expended in volume rather than recovered. He said additional live demonstrations were planned at a Turkish military exercise later in October.
Betting on Automotive-Style Output
The more consequential part of Demiroğlu’s statement concerned how AYAZ will be built. Rather than following the aerospace sector’s typical cadence of two to three airframes a month, TUSAŞ says it is running the AYAZ line on a high-volume, automotive-style production model. That distinction matters for a weapon category where Russia’s use of Shahed-136-derived drones and Ukraine’s own loitering munitions programmes have demonstrated that output volume, not just unit performance, decides relevance on a modern battlefield. A jet-powered Turkish design that can be manufactured at scale would let TUSAŞ compete on throughput against both Iranian-lineage systems and Western loitering munitions still produced in comparatively small batches.
No unit price, order quantity or customer has been disclosed, and TUSAŞ has not released technical imagery of the production aircraft. The figures given publicly so far — range, launch methods and the serial-production claim — come from Demiroğlu’s own remarks; independent verification of production rates will likely have to wait for TUSAŞ’s own announcements or future exhibition appearances.
Joining an Increasingly Crowded Field
AYAZ enters a Turkish loitering munition market that already includes Baykar’s MIZRAK, unveiled this year with a stated range beyond 1,000 kilometres, and Roketsan’s ALPAGU and CIRIT-derived munitions, alongside STM’s KARGU quadcopter line. TUSAŞ is a later entrant to the one-way-attack segment than Baykar or STM, but it brings an aerospace manufacturing base, an existing jet-powered airframe family, and a position as prime contractor on the KAAN fighter and ANKA drone programmes. For export customers, a jet-powered design with a declared 300-km-plus range sits in a different performance bracket than quadcopter-type loitering munitions, closer to the class of weapon several NATO and Gulf air forces have been shopping for since 2022.
Türkiye’s drone exports have been one of the clearest growth lines in its defence industry over the past five years, and a second major manufacturer offering a jet-powered kamikaze platform — on top of Baykar’s Kızılelma and MIZRAK — gives Ankara more to offer buyers who want strike options without the cost or diplomatic friction of a crewed combat aircraft sale. Whether AYAZ reaches export customers will depend on the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) clearing it for sale and on TUSAŞ backing up Wednesday’s claims with disclosed production numbers.
