Anakara (GNP): Pakistan has finished second at the Best International Military Drone Team Competition 2026 (BIMDTC-2026) in Ankara, where teams from 33 countries took part. The Turkish embassy in Islamabad announced the result on Sunday.
The contest took place on Saturday and was the first of its kind. Host nation Türkiye took first place, Pakistan came second, Italy third and France fourth.
Each country could enter a team of up to three people, including at least two First-Person View (FPV) pilots drawn from active-duty or reserve military personnel. Teams with the best course times qualified for the final.
Pakistan also had success in the individual events. Captain Talha won the silver medal, placing second among more than one hundred international pilots.
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The result comes as drones play a growing part in Pakistan’s military capability. The country used them extensively in its brief conflict with India in May 2025, relying on Turkish-origin YIHA-III and Asisguard Songar drones alongside the Shahpar-II UAV, which is produced domestically by the state-owned Global Industrial & Defense Solutions conglomerate.
That reliance on Turkish systems fits into a wider defence partnership. Pakistan and Türkiye already cooperate closely in military affairs, and in August Islamabad, Ankara and Riyadh signed a trilateral defence pact in Makkah.
The pact treats an attack on any one of the three nations as an attack on all of them. It also formalised decades of security cooperation between the three countries, and it was signed while Houthi attacks were growing amid the continuing US-Iran conflict.
Against that background, the embassy congratulated the Turkish and Pakistani teams, along with Italy and France, for their placings. It said the results reflected the two leading teams’ ability in unmanned aerial systems.
The Turkish embassy in Islamabad said, “skill, precision and growing expertise in the field of unmanned aerial systems.”
Managing Editor at Global News Pakistan (GNP), with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Riphah International University, graduated with a Gold Medal. Reach out at sabahtareengnp@gmail.com
