Mali Air Force now has Bayraktar Akıncı unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it was revealed on 26 November, when state television ORTM showed Minister of Defense Lieutenant General Sadio Camara inspecting two at an unidentified location.
They were displayed with Roketsan MAM-T laser-guided glide bombs and Mk 82 bombs with Roketsan Teber-82 laser-guidance kits. The MAM-T weighs 95 kg, making it considerably heavier than the 22 kg MAM-L that is already used with the FAMa’s smaller Bayraktar TB2 UAVs and can also be carried by the Akıncı.
At least one of the FAMa’s Akıncıs was fitted with an Aselsan electro-optical system that appeared to be the new ASELFLIR-500.
In an interview broadcast by ORTM1 news, an officer whose identity was concealed compared the Akıncı to the TB2, saying its two turboprop engines enabled it to fly at altitudes of more than 11 km and speeds as high as 400 km/h, and that it has an endurance of up to 24 hours, enabling it to cover the whole of Mali, while carrying a bomb load weighing up to 1,500 kg.
Mali is the seventh confirmed export operator of the Akıncı after Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ethioipia, Azerbaijan, Turkish-backed western Libyan forces, and Burkina Faso. Baykar, the Turkish company that makes the UAV, said in September that it has had export orders from 10 countries. One of the remaining three is presumably Saudi Arabia, which signed a deal in July 2023 that includes local production of the Akıncı.