Manufacturing Top Turkish defence firm to build drones in Indonesia By Pramod Kumar February 13, 2025, 12:35 PM Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar and Republikorp Indonesia founder Norman Joesoef sign an agreement to develop a drone factory in Indonesia Baykar, a leading defence supplier based in Turkey, has signed a deal with the Jakarta-based defence company Republikorp to build a drone manufacturing plant in Indonesia, according to a local newspaper. The deal was among several agreements signed during President Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Indonesia, media reports said. Baykar, a private Turkish defence company chaired by Erdoğan’s son-in-law, builds the Bayraktar drone, which has been sold to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and a series of African states, among others. “We have agreed to ramp up joint production and defence industry cooperation,” the Jakarta Globe daily reported citing Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto. Saudi Arabia in talks for $6bn Turkish arms deal Turkish arms exports up 19% year on year Turkey ramps up taxes to spend on defence tech However, no details about the joint venture’s manufacturing capabilities and factory location were shared. The Indonesian state-run PT Pindad and the Turkish defence company FNSS Defence Systems are jointly developing the medium tank Harimau. Last October, they agreed to produce the Kaplan armoured personnel carrier for the Indonesian army, the newspaper said. Baykar has started building a factory near Kyiv, Ukraine, which will employ around 500 people and will manufacture either its TB2 or TB3 drone models, the company’s chief executive, Haluk Bayraktar, told Reuters. In 2023, the company said it was selling the Bayraktar Akinci, another model of drone, to Saudi Arabia in what was described as the biggest defence contract in Turkey’s history.
