The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu, visited Türkiye in May 2026 at an official invitation.
During the trip, the CAS met with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Güler, Turkish Air Force Commander General Ziya Cemal Kadioglu, and Baykar Technologies Group Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar.
The Directorate General of Public Relations (DGPR) stated that the meeting with Bayraktar “focused on advancements in aerospace innovation, unmanned aerial systems, and emerging technologies.”
Notably, among all Turkish defence original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the CAS met only with Baykar. He did not visit Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), Aselsan, Roketsan, or any other firm.
The selective nature of the visit raises an interesting question: why has Baykar, a private-sector drone manufacturer, emerged as the PAF’s preferred Turkish aerospace partner, especially given that TAI maintains a deeper institutional relationship with Ankara, a broader product catalogue comprising of drones and crewed platforms alike, and its own subsidiary in Pakistan?
Modest Procurements, Strong Ambitions
The PAF’s relationship with Baykar began with modest but meaningful procurements. By April 2022, the PAF had fielded four Bayraktar TB2 medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) at Murid alongside two ground control station (GCS) sets.
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