Baykar Defense Exports & Cooperation Unmanned Systems

SİVRİSİNEK Drone Reportedly Spotted in Azerbaijani Service

Images circulating this week appear to show Baykar’s SİVRİSİNEK loitering munition in service with Azerbaijan’s armed forces in Nakhchivan — a sighting that, if confirmed, would mark the first time the tube-launched strike drone has been identified outside Turkish hands since its public debut in May. Neither Baku nor Ankara has officially announced a delivery, and the images’ provenance has not been independently verified, so the report should be read as an unconfirmed sighting rather than a confirmed export.

The photographs, first circulated by Azerbaijani and Turkish defence-watcher accounts and picked up by several specialist outlets on 24 September, show what appears to be SİVRİSİNEK airframes marked in Azerbaijani colours, reportedly with the Nakhchivan Separate Combined Arms Army — the garrison responsible for defending Azerbaijan’s exclave, which borders Armenia, Iran and a short stretch of Türkiye.

What SİVRİSİNEK Is

Also designated YIHA-III, Baykar unveiled SİVRİSİNEK — Turkish for “mosquito” — publicly at SAHA Expo 2026 in Istanbul in May, alongside the K2 kamikaze drone and the Mızrak loitering munition. It is a catapult-launched, tube-fired system with roughly a 3.2 m wingspan, a stated warhead of around 20 kg and a claimed range in excess of 1,000 km, requiring no runway and, according to Baykar, capable of AI-assisted visual navigation that reduces its dependence on GNSS signals — a feature increasingly emphasised by Turkish manufacturers given the prevalence of GPS jamming in contested airspace. Baykar has also demonstrated the type operating in coordinated swarms, with company footage showing ten units flying a simultaneous strike profile during testing earlier in 2026.

At its SAHA Expo unveiling, Baykar and Azerbaijani officials discussed plans for local production of SİVRİSİNEK inside Azerbaijan, part of a broader pattern in which Baku has moved from buying finished Turkish systems to co-producing them domestically.

A Long Pattern, Even Without Confirmation

Whatever the status of this specific sighting, it sits inside a well-established relationship rather than a surprise one. Azerbaijan was the first foreign operator to fly the Bayraktar TB2 in combat, using it during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, and the two countries’ governments routinely describe themselves as “one nation, two states.” Azerbaijan is already co-producing Turkish SALVO and KAYRA naval drones domestically with Dearsan, and Baku has been a recurring early or first customer for new Turkish unmanned systems over the past several years.

That history is exactly why a note of caution matters here: unconfirmed images are a poor basis for declaring a new export customer, and Baku has previously waited months or longer to formally confirm equipment already visible in open-source imagery, including earlier Bayraktar deliveries. DefenceTürkiye has not been able to independently verify the images’ location, date or authenticity, and neither company nor either government has responded publicly to the reports as of this writing.

Why It Would Matter If Confirmed

A confirmed Azerbaijani order would be Baykar’s first known export customer for SİVRİSİNEK barely four months after its public unveiling — a notably fast turnaround even by the company’s own export record, which includes 36 countries for TB2 and 16 for AKINCI. It would also extend a category Türkiye has been pushing hard in 2026: long-range, GNSS-resistant loitering munitions positioned as a cheaper, more attritable alternative to cruise missiles for countries that cannot afford — or cannot access — Western equivalents. For now, the story is a sighting, not a sale, and DefenceTürkiye will update this article if Baykar, the SSB or Azerbaijani authorities issue an official statement.