Pakistan finishes second at international military drone contest in Ankara

Pakistan finished as runner-up at the inaugural Best International Military Drone Team Competition 2026 (BIMDTC-2026), held in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Saturday. Türkiye won the championship, while Italy placed third and France fourth.

Military drone operators from 33 countries took part. The Turkish Embassy in Islamabad confirmed the results in a post on X dated October 25, 2026, congratulating the Turkish and Pakistani teams. It said their performances showed skill, precision and growing expertise in unmanned aerial systems.

According to the reported rules, each country could send a team of no more than three members. Every team had to include at least two qualified First-Person View (FPV) drone pilots, who had to be serving military personnel or reservists. FPV technology lets an operator fly a drone using a live camera feed, giving a view from the aircraft itself.

Participants had to fly their drones along a set route and finish the course in the shortest possible time. The teams with the fastest runs moved on to the final stage, where control, accurate navigation and performance under pressure decided the final standings.

Daily Pakistan noted that the result comes as Pakistan continues to expand its domestic drone programmes and keeps defence technology partnerships with allies, particularly Türkiye. It reported that Pakistan used a mix of Turkish-made and locally developed unmanned aerial vehicles during its brief military confrontation with India in May 2025. The systems reported included the Turkish YIHA-III and ASISGUARD SONGAR drones and Pakistan's Shahpar-II, which was developed by Global Industrial & Defence Solutions (GIDS), a state-owned defence organisation.

The outlet also said Pakistan and Türkiye maintain close military ties covering training, equipment and technological cooperation. It reported that in August Pakistan, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia were said to have signed a trilateral defence agreement in Makkah, with a collective-defence commitment under which an attack on one would be treated as an attack on all three.