First Saudi Naval Crews Complete AKINCI Training at Baykar
Thirty Royal Saudi Naval Forces personnel have completed training on Baykar’s Bayraktar AKINCI unmanned combat aerial vehicle at the company’s Çorlu Flight Training and Test Center in northwestern Türkiye, according to Anadolu Agency. The group, made up of 15 pilots and 15 mechanical and electronic technicians, is the first documented batch of Saudi naval aviation personnel to finish the programme.
The training is part of the export and cooperation agreement Baykar signed with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense in Jeddah in July 2023, a deal Baykar has described as the largest defence and aviation export contract in Turkish history, reportedly worth close to $3 billion. Under that agreement, Baykar committed not only to supply AKINCI aircraft but also to provide training, technical support and logistics, alongside a joint production arrangement with Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI).
Why the Navy, Not the Air Force
The detail that stands out is the branch of service: the graduates belong to the Royal Saudi Naval Forces rather than the Royal Saudi Air Force. AKINCI is a twin-turboprop, high-altitude long-endurance UCAV built by Baykar with a maximum takeoff weight around 6 tonnes and payload provisions for Roketsan’s precision-guided munitions, including the SOM cruise missile and the İHA-300 supersonic missile tested against a surface target earlier this month. A naval crew pipeline suggests Riyadh intends to fly the type in maritime patrol, over-water strike and anti-ship roles alongside — or instead of — the land-based ISR and strike missions AKINCI already performs for the Turkish Armed Forces.
Neither Baykar nor Saudi officials have detailed AKINCI’s exact naval tasking, and no aircraft deliveries to Saudi Arabia have been publicly confirmed. What is documented is the localisation track: Baykar Chief Technology Officer Selçuk Bayraktar said in August 2025 that assembly lines for AKINCI were being set up on Saudi soil, with the SAMI joint venture targeting the first locally built aircraft by 2026. Training crews ahead of, or alongside, that production ramp-up is the standard sequence Baykar has followed with other export customers.
A Crowded Gulf Market
Saudi Arabia’s interest in an armed high-endurance UCAV puts AKINCI in direct competition with the US MQ-9 Reaper — for which Washington has periodically eased export restrictions to Gulf states — and with Chinese systems such as CASC’s Wing Loong II and CH-4, both of which the Gulf Cooperation Council states have operated for longer than Turkey’s drones. Baykar’s pitch has rested on faster delivery timelines, fewer end-use restrictions than US platforms carry under ITAR, and a willingness to offer technology transfer and local assembly that Washington and Beijing have been more reluctant to extend.
The Jeddah agreement was one of several defence deals signed during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s July 2023 Gulf tour, alongside separate Baykar discussions in the UAE and Qatar. It also sits inside the broader warming of Turkish-Saudi defence ties that produced the Mecca Defence Pact framework this year, under which Ankara, Riyadh and Islamabad have been building out joint command arrangements — Türkiye has separately signalled military support for Saudi Arabia amid Houthi strikes, and Riyadh’s own push to diversify suppliers was underlined by the recent US approval of F-35 sales to Saudi Arabia.
What to Watch
The open questions are the ones Anadolu’s report does not answer: how many AKINCI airframes Saudi Arabia has taken delivery of or will take delivery of on what schedule, whether the naval variant carries a different sensor or weapons fit than the Turkish Air Force’s aircraft, and how the SAMI assembly line’s 2026 target is tracking. A second training cohort, or a first-flight or first-delivery announcement from either government, would be the next marker of how quickly the 2023 contract is converting into operational Saudi capability.
Sources
- Anadolu Agency, “30 Saudi naval personnel complete training at Turkish defense firm Baykar,” September 25, 2026
- Baykar Technology press statements on the Saudi Arabia export agreement, July 2023
