Baykar Defence and Indonesia’s PT Republik Aero Dirgantara (Republikorp) signed a framework agreement at the SAHA 2026 exhibition on 6 May for the export of 12 Bayraktar KIZILELMA jet-powered unmanned combat aircraft (UCAVs) to the Indonesian Armed Forces, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2028. The deal includes options for four additional squadrons – a further 48 aircraft – that would bring Indonesia’s total KIZILELMA fleet to 60 units.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar confirmed that serial production of the KIZILELMA was completed in 2025, with Turkish Air Force induction targeted for 2026. “We have signed the first export agreement for Bayraktar KIZILELMA with Indonesia,” Bayraktar said at the signing ceremony. “We are proud of this on behalf of our country and brotherly Indonesia.”
The KIZILELMA – which first flew on 14 December 2022 – is a single-engine, canard-delta platform with a maximum take-off weight of 8,500 kg, a 1,500 kg payload capacity, a 500-nautical-mile combat radius, and a maximum speed of Mach 0.9 at a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. The production variant is powered by the Ukrainian Ivchenko-Progress AI-322F afterburning turbofan, ordered from Motor Sich in 2021, generating 24.5 kN dry thrust and 44 kN with afterburner.
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Baykar has positioned the platform as a low-observable strike and air-combat asset, featuring an Aselsan active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, internal weapons bays, and infrared search-and-track (IRST). Weapons integration testing has covered the GÖKDOĞAN beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM), the TOLUN-P small-diameter bomb, and the TEBER-82 laser/GNSS-guided bomb from external hardpoints.
The agreement extends a Baykar-Republikorp joint venture signed in February 2025 covering local production of the Bayraktar TB3 carrier-capable drone and the larger Bayraktar AKINCI in Indonesia. The KIZILELMA framework adds maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities, workforce development, technical certification of Indonesian personnel, and joint research into autonomous systems.
The KIZILELMA is the fourth distinct Baykar platform in Indonesia’s procurement pipeline, following the TB2, AKINCI, and TB3 – making Republikorp’s relationship with Baykar among the most diversified single-supplier partnerships in Southeast Asian defence procurement.
The arrangement links the KIZILELMA program to broader Turkish-Indonesian cooperation involving the KAAN fifth-generation fighter, missile systems, sensors, and autonomous combat technologies. Indonesia signed a contract for 48 KAAN fighters from Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) at IDEF 2025 in July, becoming the first international customer for that program.
Baykar has designed the KIZILELMA from the outset for manned-unmanned teaming as a loyal wingman to manned fighters – a concept that, in Indonesia’s case, would pair KIZILELMA UCAVs with KAAN stealth fighters in forward sensor, electronic attack, and weapons carrier roles. The combination would give Indonesia a force-multiplication capability that no other Southeast Asian military currently fields.
Separately at SAHA 2026, Turkish defence electronics firm ASELSAN signed two contracts with Indonesian authorities covering payloads for unmanned naval vehicles destined for the Indonesian Navy and mission-critical communications systems for the Indonesian Armed Forces. The contracts were signed by ASELSAN Deputy General Manager Özgür Taylan Sarı and PT Republik Director Ivandry Febriando Sitepo, further deepening the Turkish-Indonesian defence industrial relationship across multiple capability domains.
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