Leonardo identified three locations in Italy to build the Baykar aircraft, supported by R&D, innovation, engineering and certification centers.
Leonardo and Baykar’s joint venture LBA Systems will build the latter’s flagship UCAV products, the TB2, TB3, Akinci and Kizilelma, at three different locations in Italy, said Leonardo in a presentation of third quarter 2025 results on Nov. 5, 2025.
As part of this plan, Grottaglie in the southeast will undertake composite manufacturing of the Kizilelma; Ronchi da Legionari in the northeast will see the manufacturing and final assembly of Leonardo’s Mirach Baykar’s TB3 drones; and Villanova d’Albenga in the northwest will carry out the final assembly of the Akinci and the TB2.
Villanova d’Albenga would be a Baykar facility, according to an illustrated graphic in the presentation, while the nearby Turin site and another facility in Rome would carry out “engineering and certification” and “multi-domain technologies innovation,” respectively. Leonardo lists LBA Systems among the “Large Scale Initiatives,” alongside Leonardo Rheinmetall Military Vehicles, the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) and the acquisition of Iveco Defence.
🔴#LDO_PR #Leonardo‘s Board of Directors approved 9M 2025 results. FY 2025 Guidance confirmed. https://t.co/NSJln6ohQm #LDO_IR pic.twitter.com/sjgmmitaOv
— Leonardo (@Leonardo_live) November 5, 2025
Drone production plans in Italy
There had been direct hints at the JV possibly identifying Baykar’s Kizilelma and Akinci to be customized by Leonardo for the European market, both in Baykar and Leonardo chiefs Haluk Bayraktar and Roberto Cingolani statements during the Mar. 6 press conference. This was followed by the visit of the large Italian government, military and Leonardo delegation, who were shown extensive demonstrations of the Kizilelma and the Akinci.
The Q3 report cited “ongoing activities to ensure regulatory approval” for the new production activities. Interestingly, the plant at Grottaglie, that would produce Baykar’s Kizilelma, also currently builds composite fuselage barrel sections for the Boeing 787 widebody aircraft.
“It’s going to be our universal adjunct fighter that can be coupled to any machine as long as you can develop the electronics for the controls and this is of course what we do,” Cingolani said according to FlightGlobal. The Ronchi dei Legionari facility, that would build the TB3s, was described by Cingolani as a “cash-cow in this category of machines”, alongside the revival of the Italian firm’s Mirach platform.
BAYKAR VE LEONARDO KIZILELMA’NIN İTALYA’DA ORTAK ÜRETİMİNE HAZIRLANIYOR
Flight Global’ın haberine göre; İtalyan savunma şirketi Leonardo, Baykar Teknoloji ile kurduğu ortak girişim LBA Systems kapsamında, Kızılelma insansız savaş uçağı dâhil olmak üzere beş farklı İHA modelini… pic.twitter.com/xuYaGS0yuT
— SAVTEK Dergi (@savtekdergi) November 8, 2025
The image used to represent the Mirach drone system in the Q3 results document looks like Leonardo’s Mirach 100/5. The company describes it as a “high performance, reusable Aerial Target System,” and the “standard European Armed Forces threat simulator.”
It has a Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) of 330 kg, an endurance of 90 minutes and a payload of 70 kg. Because of this, Cingolani said the Mirach 100/5 acts “more like a missile than a standard drone.”
FlightGlobal also revealed that the Villanova d’Albenga plant now owned by Baykar is the same that formerly belonged to Piaggio Aerospace, whose ownership was transferred to Baykar after the Turkish firm acquired it. “We are making all the necessary investments and upgrades of the production lines. We are working on the integration and as soon as the regulatory issues are fixed – and we are working daily with the authorities, including the ministry of defence – I believe that already next year the first product will be delivered to the market,” Cingolani further said.
Fusing Turkish drones with European systems
As we had reported previously, the partnership between the Italian and Turkish companies envisages combining Baykar’s expertise in the design, development and production of unmanned aerial systems and Leonardo’s lead in mission systems, payload design, sensor fusion, C4I systems and aerospace certification in Europe. Products evolved in the partnership will target both European and global markets, with plans to also look at space technologies.
The subsequent tie up between Turkish Aerospace Industries and U.K.’s BAE Systems follows the same industrial-commercial template, for the growing need for autonomous UCAVs and wingmen drones that would be actively sought in the future. Either companies’ R&D and production capacities singularly would be inadequate to meet the massive demand.
The Turkish Kizilema, with extensive European avionics and sensors from Leonardo, could also very well be pitched as a CCA not only for the upcoming GCAP, but also the Eurofighter Tranche 5. The Q3 report said: “In the meanwhile, Leonardo is progressing in assessing the future integration between payloads and platforms – along all classes (from tactical to UCAV1).” We can expect LBA Systems to release a concept rendition over the next year of the new Kizilelma with Leonardo’s systems.
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Cumhurbaşkanlığı Savunma Sanayii Başkanı Haluk Görgün ile İtalya Savunma Bakan Yardımcısı Matteo Perego di Cremnago, İtalya Hava Kuvvetleri Komutanı Korgeneral Antonio Conserva, İtalya Kara Kuvvetleri Komutanı Korgeneral Carmine Masiello, İtalya Deniz… pic.twitter.com/jbU9EgAUyH
— BAYKAR (@BaykarTech) October 6, 2025
Kizilelma is also advancing
The Kizilelma, billed as Baykar’s most sophisticated UCAV and poised to be the collaborative UCAV for the Kaan fighter, is also making waves, after early in October it live fired the TOLUN and TEBER-82 guided bombs. Since late October, Baykar has released extensive footage of prototype TC-OZB5 (the fifth prototype or PT-5), flying with the MURAD-100A AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar.
Test flights with the system have taken place at least twice. Aircraft PT-5 is also integrated with the TOYGUN 100 EOTS (Electro-Optical Tracking System) under the chin. Footage from inside the Kizilelma’s ground control center shows one screen featuring the interface capturing the MURAD’s radar detection range, which Turkish sources put at 200 km.
I don’t want to comment too much on range, but there’s one thing Aselsan and Baykar want to emphasize through the official video: Kızılelma locked onto a target well over 200km away with its Murad-100A AESA radar. Disregarding the target’s RCS, I can say that the Murad AESA and… https://t.co/RV3ayQP5TP pic.twitter.com/9NQUu7QfHA
— TR_tech (@T_Nblty) October 21, 2025
Poised to carry the Gökdoğan BVR and Bozdoğan WVR AAMs, as well as a variety of future longer-ranged missiles, the Kizilelma meets the bare minimum off-board sensing, and off-board criteria.
The latter would be validated only after a live air-to-air missile test with the MURAD. Even without the missile, the Kizilelma is said to offer a flexible persistent unmanned AEW&C capability. An AAM-armed version can impose a significant amount of air-denial on a certain sector, or at least complicate adversary plans.
