Baykar honored its standout employees for their achievements and contributions throughout the year at the Özdemir Bayraktar Awards.

ISTANBUL
2 February 2025

Baykar hosted the Özdemir Bayraktar Awards, where it honors employees with outstanding performance and achievements. At the second edition of the annual award ceremony, which took place at the Özdemir Bayraktar National Technology Center, 122 winners received their awards from Baykar Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar and CEO Haluk Bayraktar.

BAYKAR SPECIAL AWARDS

In the first part of the ceremony, awards were presented to the top three employees who successfully completed the 20-week Baykar MBA program, a symbol of the company’s commitment to continuous learning and development. Following this, unit leaders, group leaders, team leaders, and employees of the year were honored in succession. Finally, the Baykar Special Award was presented to 10 recipients, including Ömer Bayraktar, who co-founded Baykar in 1986 alongside his late brother, Özdemir Bayraktar.

SELÇUK BAYRAKTAR REFLECTS ON 2024
Speaking at the award ceremony, Baykar Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Selçuk Bayraktar made the following remarks:

“My dear companions,

We hosted the first-ever Özdemir Bayraktar Awards around this time last year. How time flies…

I once wrote the following in my diary:
“As time flows like an ocean past our bow,
Neither storms nor calm seas can change our course.
We leave our memories to the vast waters,
Like messages sealed in bottles.
With hands hardened by every nautical mile,
We are the oarsmen of our civilization’s ship.
Since the day we set sail, in the name of God,
Our duty has been to row forward.”

Here are some of last year’s highlights:

We successfully completed Bayraktar AKINCI-C’s first flight test.

Bayraktar AKINCI passed 50,000 flight hours and approached 100,000 hours.

We introduced Bayraktar KALKAN VTOL and the KEMANKEŞ Mini Intelligent Cruise Missile to our product line.

Bayraktar TB2 UCAV, with its autonomous barrel roll, became the first UCAV worldwide to perform an aggressive maneuver.

The first-ever Bayraktar TB2 UAV, which had been serving the Land Forces Command since 2014, passed 10,000 flight hours and was decommissioned.

Meanwhile, another Bayraktar TB2, which has been serving the Gendarmerie General Command, passed 10,000 flight hours.

Bayraktar KIZILELMA’s production prototype successfully completed its first flight test.

As promised, Bayraktar TB3 shook the world by becoming the world’s first-ever UAV to take off and land on a short-runway vessel (TCG Anadolu) and finished that race in first place.

Our Bayraktar TB2 UCAV passed 1 million flight hours.

We donated permanent homes we built in Adıyaman, Hatay and Maraş to the Turkish state and those homes have been delivered to our brothers and sisters who survived the earthquake. Through this project, we have showcased Baykar’s spirit and mission to our entire civilization.

In 2024, we generated 90% of our revenue from exports—the export of UCAVs that we developed with our own resources.

With Türkiye controlling 65% of the global UAV market, Baykar came to dominate 60% of that market.

Baykar, which is three times bigger than its closest U.S. competitor, has been the world’s largest UCAV company for four years. This achievement is all yours, my friends.

The Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy approved the sale of Piaggio Aerospace, one of Italy’s most established aviation companies, to Baykar. In other words, we will soon initiate our activities in the manned aerial vehicles field in Europe.

With Fergani, we have successfully launched our first satellite to space. We will send our second satellite and our Orbital Transfer Vehicle this year.

What’s Going to Happen in 2025?

The serial production of our KIZILELMA aircraft will continue and, inshallah, it will start its service.
The serial production of Bayraktar TB3, which will start serving over land and sea—in other words, the Blue Homeland.
Bayraktar KALKAN VTOL and KEMANKEŞ will begin their service.
The world’s first AI-assisted open-source digital encyclopedia, KÜRE, which was developed by the T3 and KÜME foundations, will go online within the year.
T3AI, our open-source large language model, which was developed with the support of the T3 Foundation and its stakeholders, will be made available to the public this year.
TEKNOFEST will take place in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, our fraternal homeland, and Istanbul.
The world, with all its institutions in ruins, must be rebuilt.
You, the sun-faced children of our civilization, will build a just world—one surrounded by goodness and compassion, where liberty and prosperity reach every corner of the earth.
Wishing to reach those beautiful days together. Stay with love.”