Niger becomes first export customer for Hürkus

The Directorate of Communications, a Turkish government agency, confirmed on 19 November that Hürkus aircraft are being sold to Niger.

In a conversation with his Nigerien counterpart Mohamed Bazoum, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that ‘TB2 drones, Hürkus aircraft, and armoured vehicles that Niger would procure from Turkey would strengthen its military and security forces’.

It is unknown how many aircraft Niger will procure and cost details of the export deal are undisclosed, but the transaction was announced on 11 November by Turkish Aerospace CEO Temel Kotil in an interview with TV channel CNN Turk.

Kotil said that the first Hürkus-B trainer will be delivered to Niger by mid-2022 but he did not specify if the Hürkus-A civilian aircraft and Hürkus-C light attack aircraft have also been sold to the African country. However, Kotil did say in April 2021 that an unnamed country was close to signing a deal for Hürkus-C.

The agreement between Niger and Turkey can be seen as the fruit of an African tour made by Erdogan in October 2021, after which Nigeria ordered a pair of new OPVs from Dearsan.

Just as significant is the fact that the Hürkus deal with Niger is the first overseas sale of Turkish-made fixed-wing aircraft since the 1940s.