Will Poland buy new Turkish UAVs? [Defence24 Exclusive]

“The purchase of Bayraktar TB3 is one of the options being considered by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland,” replied the Ministry of Defence’s Department of Communication and Promotion to Defence24.pl’s inquiry.

This means that the operation of Bayraktar TB2s in the Polish Armed Forces has been promising enough that continuation of cooperation with the Turkish company Baykar is not ruled out. In May 2021, Poland bought four sets of six air vehicles each and three command-and-control stations of the Bayraktar TB2 system. The last of these was delivered in May 2024, and its operation in the Polish Armed Forces began after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, in October 2022.

Initially, it was assumed that the TB2s would serve the Polish military, among other things, to break through Russian A2/AD systems and to destroy ballistic missile launchers, air defense systems, and the opponent’s electronic warfare assets. In other words, they were meant to penetrate enemy territory and destroy high-value targets without having to worry too much about the survival of the UAV itself.

It is unclear to what extent these assumptions still hold in Poland today, given that the survivability of large UAVs over the battlefield is now very limited—and the larger the aircraft, the higher the risk of its detection and destruction.

It is possible that the concept of use has evolved, for example to operate from above (or even beyond) own lines, conducting reconnaissance with electro-optical sensors and others, perhaps using armaments. A completely new requirement today is, for example, countering enemy suicide drones like OWA or other UAVs. A larger UAV could perform this task using onboard weapons.

The Bayraktar TB3 is a far-reaching development of the export hit TB2. The difference lies not only in its capability to operate from naval aviation decks. The TB3 has more than twice the maximum take-off weight and carries almost twice as much weaponry or other payload (280 kg on six hardpoints versus 150 kg on four). Its cruise speed is higher (230 km/h versus 130 km/h), along with other improved parameters. This system is also integrated with an even wider array of armaments.