UAV Crashed in Turkey
UAV of the Turkish army has crashed last Friday during a test flight in Nizip district in southern Turkey. The UAV was found in a field near a village called Gaziantep’s Sarıkoç, and one was injured during the crash, according to a report greeknation website.
Local police entered the crash site and collected the pieces of the drone. One resident said that at first he could not identify the flying object that was flying very low. “After seeing it falling, I informed the police immediately”, he added.
Despite the fact that Turkey does not officially confirm the issue, reports on Turkish media claim that recently the UAV is used by Turkey to fly over areas of northern Syria in order to gather information on the military situation of the rebels fighting against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It is also unclear whether the information gathered using UAVs is transmitted to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighting Assad.
Despite foreign reports claiming the UAV that crashed was one of the Heron UAVsTurkey has purchased fromIsrael (a transaction that occurred in 2010, in which Turkey has purchased from Israel 10 Heron UAVs), Israeli sources claim that the UAV was of a different model.
According to the report, Turkey has a special version of the Heron which includes a Turkish design of sub-systems, especially in the field of electro-optics and the UAV engine.
Another report by osimint.com display a rare photo of the Heron at a Turkish air force base called Batman, located about 90 miles from the Syrian border. According to the report, this military base is the center of activity of Turkish UAVs.
