The Austrian company Rotax has suspended the supply of engines used on the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 attack UAVs. This was announced by a representative of the “Rotax” company.
“Bayraktar TB2 drones are used not only in the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its ally Syrian militants but also in the Karabakh conflict for targeted killing,” the statement said.
Until now, Rotax did not feel responsible for the use of their engines as they had been originally produced for light aircraft “sold to the buyer” through international agencies. In particular, these engines had been supplied to Turkey from Italy.
It is noted that Kale Baykar, manufacturer of Bayraktar TB2s, purchased these engines not directly from Austria but through Italy. Rotax does not monitor the end users of its engines as they are not dual-use products in the Austrian classification.
A spokesman for the Austrian company commented that the manufacturer was following the instructions of its parent company, Canada’s Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), which has also stopped supplying aircraft engines to “countries of unknown use.”
Protests took place in both Canada and Austria after it became known that these Canadian-Austrian-made engines were used in Turkish drones employed by Azerbaijan to fight Armenian troops in Artsakh.
Recall that before the decision of the Austrians, the Canadian Foreign Ministry banned the supply of Canadian military products to Turkey. Bayraktar TB2 used optical cameras from the Canadian company Wescam. Recently, the American company Viasat also stopped supplying communication systems for Turkish drones.
Source: ermenihaber.am
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