On the final trade day of the 2023 Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA), Malaysia’s Defence Minister Mohamad bin Haji Hassan presided over the announcement of a slew of new capabilities for the country’s armed forces, including the acquisition of Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drones from Turkey.
The overall capability upgrade is being undertaken under the country’s RM10.1 billion ($3.3 billion) Malaysian Rolling Plan.
“The Royal Malaysian Air Force is in progress of having three units of MALE unmanned aerial systems under Phase 1,” the Malaysian Ministry of Defence said in a statement on 25 May.
Under this part of the plan Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) will deliver three Anka UAS platforms and associated support to the RMAF.
The Anka made its maiden flight on 39 December 2010, and a ten aircraft serial production contract was signed with the Turkish Armed Forces in October 2013. The baseline configuration is known as Anka-S, but TAI has developed a Block B configuration, which features integration of SAR/ISAR/GMTI capabilities.
The Anka had been announced the winner of Malaysia’s MALE competition in October 2022 by then Minister for Defence Hishammuddin Hussein. Competitors included General Atomics with the MQ-1 Predator and China’s Chengdu GJ-1 Wing Loong 1.