The CEO of the Turkish defense company Baykar, which manufactures the world-famous Bayrakrar TB2 drones, spoke about the progress of the construction of the factory in Ukraine.

Haluk Bayraktar shared the details of the construction in an interview with DefenseNews journalists at the Paris Air Show exhibition.

Bayraktar told reporters that the construction work on Baykar’s local subsidiary, LLC Avia Ventures, is advancing as planned towards an opening date sometime in 2025.

“Much of the preparatory work is already being performed, with the site expected to already receive electricity come July,” he added.

“LLC Avia Ventures was first registered in Kyiv in 2019 and received earlier last year a license for the import-export of military products. It is one of the first and only companies so far in the country to have a foreign founder as part of its structure and a license for defense systems,” Bayraktar said.

Investments and special economic status

Defense News was given exclusive access to the document, the purpose of which is to promote direct investments in the relevant field, as well as create favorable conditions for technology transfer and use of production. It provides, in part, special tax and custom incentives for Turkish investors in the aerospace sector of Ukraine until January 2035.

Through its subsidiary, Baykar is further investing in Ukraine by building a center of excellence in UAV technologies, which involves a transfer of technology to localize the production of the company’s drones.

“We have received the appropriate license permits from Turkey to fully produce both Baykar’s TB2 and Akinci drones in Ukraine,” Baykar said.

The company’s planned total investment for the construction of these facilities amounts to $95,5 million.

As previously reported, on December 13, the Verkhovna Rada ratified an agreement with Turkey on cooperation in the field of high technologies, which provided for the construction of the Bayraktar plant in Ukraine.

The area of the enterprise will be more than 30 thousand square meters, and more than 300 Ukrainian engineers and technicians will be hired to work.

In October, Haluk Bayraktar said that plans for a plant were progressing, despite some obstacles that arose due to Russia’s war against Ukraine.