Jakarta. Turkish defense company Baykar inked a deal to build a manufacturing plant of drones in Indonesia via a joint venture scheme on Wednesday.

Military drones, whether for combat or surveillance, have gained global attention due to their widespread use by the Ukrainian military. These drones have proven highly effective in countering Russian artillery and infantry advances in the ongoing war, which will enter its fourth year later this month.

The effectiveness of drones on the battlefield -- now deployed by both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war -- has revolutionized modern military technology.

Türkiye has emerged as one of the world's leading producers of advanced military drones.

Baykar -- an Istanbul-based private-owned firm specializing in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) -- has partnered with Indonesian defense holding Republikorp to set up a joint venture for local drone production. The deal's signing for this entity took place on the sidelines of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s talks with his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto at the Bogor Palace. 

“We have agreed to ramp up joint production and defense industry cooperation,” Prabowo told reporters shortly after the signing ceremony.

Earlier that day, Prabowo told Erdogan that he wanted to see Indonesian and Turkish companies establishing joint ventures. He said that Indonesia's existing partnership with Turkish defense companies, including Baykar, is "already going well".

A leaders’ joint statement document issued post-meeting wrote that Prabowo and Erdogan wanted to expand the current defense cooperation “beyond procurement”. “Both leaders … welcomed the establishment of a joint venture and representative offices for Turkish primary defense industry firms in Indonesia,” the document wrote.

At present, there is still no information on what sort of UAVs the Baykar-Republikorp entity will produce, nor the name of the joint venture or the factory’s location.

Baykar’s official website shows that it produces various types of UAVs, including the Bayraktar TB2, which the company claims can carry out "surgical-precision strikes". Indonesian Air Force’s chief of staff Mohamad Tony Harjono had previously told reporters last August that the military was already eyeing the Bayraktar TB2. 

There are already some existing bilateral deals on arms production. As a case in point, state-run arms producer Pindad and its Turkish counterpart FNSS are jointly developing the medium tank Harimau. Last October, both companies announced that they had agreed to produce a Kaplan armored personnel carrier (APC) for the Indonesian army. 

The Baykar-Republikorp joint venture's agreement came out amid Indonesia’s military modernization plans. The Defense Ministry is also among the few government bodies that get exempted from Prabowo’s budget efficiency measures, meaning that the plans to upgrade defense systems would likely remain unaffected. Prabowo used to be Indonesia’s defense minister before taking office as president last October.

This marked Erdogan’s first visit to Indonesia since 2022. The Turkish leader at the time traveled to Bali to attend the G20 Summit.