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Turkish drone giant Baykar Chairperson Selcuk Bayraktar said Friday that success in unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UAVs) alone cannot guarantee Türkiye's sovereignty, urging progress across all technology fields as he warned that an unchecked global technology race could lead to "a terrible extinction."
"Success in unmanned combat aerial vehicles alone is not enough for a country to achieve full independence and prosperity. It must advance alongside all other fields. Developing a single unmanned combat aircraft cannot, on its own, guarantee sovereignty and independence," Bayraktar said at the International Astronautical Congress in Antalya.
The remarks from the head of Türkiye's top drone maker, which earns over 90% of its revenue from exports, signal a push to extend the country’s defense success into space and other strategic technologies.
Bayraktar said Baykar achieved the fastest transformation in large-class UAVs over 20 years to become the world's largest manufacturer and exporter in the field, made possible by sharing technology with "friendly and brotherly" countries.
"Our rapid pace of innovation enabled us to develop the most effective solutions on the battlefield. Wherever it has been used, this technology has brought independence. It has also enabled us to advance across different technological fields, including space, using entirely our own resources," he said.
He said the purpose behind technology matters more than the technology itself, noting that widely used devices such as smartwatches and phones also serve as intelligence-gathering tools.
"Rather than focusing on today’s race, focusing on races that have yet to begin seems to be a more effective strategy for countries like ours, countries that are only beginning to build their technological ecosystems," Bayraktar said, citing major monopolies in existing technologies.
After flying the Bayraktar Kizilelma unmanned fighter aircraft (UFA), Baykar’s new "red apple" goal is Fergani Space, he said. The venture, funded partly by Baykar, aims to develop the Ulug Bey Global Positioning System (GPS) to support Türkiye's independence in space.
Bayraktar said the global order pursues a strategy to "make people addicted, create dependence, and leave them without alternatives," with global monopolies turning people's every step into data and artificial intelligence increasingly thinking for them.
"We can see this in the wars that have recently begun and never seem to end. If we continue at this pace, driven by this ambition, a terrible extinction awaits us all, humanity, our children, and future generations," he said.
"If we play this game the same way once again, humanity itself will cease to exist," Bayraktar noted.
"In a world where even the killing of babies can be rationalized, no one can truly be innocent, and such a world cannot continue to exist," he added.
"We aim to build a fairer, more beautiful and better world that serves the good of humanity along the path we are pursuing together with the Teknofest generation," Bayraktar added.
Bayraktar said 55,000 students have applied to Teknofest space competitions to date, compared with 20,000 applicants across all competitions in the festival's first year. This year, 10,000 applied to the rocket competition, he said. "These figures paint a truly hopeful picture for our journey into the skies and beyond, into space."
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