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South Korea's arms procurement agency has asked Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) whether it can buy the PD170 turbodiesel drone engine built by TAI's subsidiary TUSAS Engine Industries Inc. (TEI), South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
"We are looking at potential cooperation with Korea in a broad framework," a TAI official told Yonhap, expressing hope about the inquiry from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
The inquiry comes as South Korean military drone programs have suffered a string of public crashes.
The PD170 already powers some of Türkiye's most combat-tested drones.
Neither side has said which Korean drone program the engine would power, how many units Seoul wants or what a deal might be worth.
An official at Türkiye's Defense Industries Agency (SSB) told Yonhap he could not comment on specific engine models and that a statement would come only after the necessary procedures and negotiations are completed.
The TAI official said the company hopes joint engineering projects could lay the groundwork for long-term industrial partnerships and new aerospace programs.
The PD170 is a turbodiesel engine developed for medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drones under a project launched by the SSB to build Türkiye's first indigenous aviation engine. It produces 172 horsepower.
The engine first flew on TAI's Anka on Dec. 27, 2018, entered mass production in 2019 and also powers the Aksungur.
An Aksungur fitted with the PD170 set a single-sortie record of 45 hours and reached 42,000 feet.
The engine has also been used on Baykar's Bayraktar TB3.
TEI says the design draws on its experience building engines for U.S.-designed F-16 fighter jets under license in Türkiye.
Turkish drones have been used in combat in Ukraine and across the Middle East, and Türkiye's defense exports passed $10 billion last year.
A deal on the PD170 would mark a new step in Türkiye-South Korea defense cooperation, with no timeline announced.
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