Uzbekistan deploys Bayraktar UAV unit along state border

A new special unit equipped with Bayraktar unmanned aerial vehicles has been placed on combat duty along Uzbekistan’s state border, Chairman of the State Security Service (SSS) Bahodir Kurbanov said at an expanded meeting of the Security Council.

He recalled that in November 2023, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was shown the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 strike operational-tactical unmanned aerial vehicle at a military unit in Surkhandarya region.

Kurbanov also reported that as part of the introduction of modern digital tools into the system for guarding and protecting the state border, 42 percent of the border has been equipped with video surveillance systems, while 1,117 kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines have been laid.

According to the briefing, border troops are equipped with armored vehicles at 98 percent, watercraft at 88 percent, weapons and ammunition at 100 percent, and electro-optical equipment at 78 percent. Units have also been supplied with modern unmanned aerial vehicles.

In addition, both the intensity and qualitative indicators of combat training activities have been increased.