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Drones: Industry & Defence
24JUL

Leonardo, Baykar put TB3 on Italian lines

2 min read
18:27UTC

LBA Systems, the Leonardo-Baykar joint venture, unveiled its TB3-derived Astore Levante at Farnborough on 22 July and declared itself fully operational.

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TechnologyDeveloping
Key takeaway

Leonardo and Baykar reached a productionised combat drone by pooling a Turkish airframe with an Italian line.

Joint venture LBA Systems, owned by Italy's Leonardo and Turkey's Baykar, unveiled a Bayraktar TB3-derived combat drone under the new name Astore Levante and declared itself fully operational at Farnborough on 22 July. Leonardo is an Italian defence and aerospace prime; Baykar is the drone maker behind the combat-proven TB3 airframe. The aircraft mates that airframe with Leonardo sensors, mission systems and ground control, and will be built through Leonardo's own production lines.⁠1

Leonardo and Baykar chose neither an in-house build nor a straight licence. A cross-border joint venture takes an airframe already flying in service and puts a European industrial base beneath it, handing Baykar's portfolio a Western manufacturing home and a route into NATO buyers Ankara alone struggles to reach. Production through Italian facilities also gives European air forces a supplier inside the bloc rather than an import.

That is a distinct answer to the sovereignty question, set against the build-at-home route Britain chose for its own combat drone. LBA Systems reaches that tier by pooling a proven airframe with European systems and a European line, trading full sovereign control for a faster path to a productionised aircraft.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Astore Levante is a combat drone built by combining a Turkish airframe, the Bayraktar TB3, with Italian sensors and control systems. It was made by LBA Systems, a joint venture, meaning a shared company, owned equally by Italy's Leonardo and Turkey's Baykar. Baykar built the TB3's body, which has already seen combat use in other Baykar drones; Leonardo added the electronics that let operators see, aim and control the aircraft. Declaring the venture fully operational means it can now compete for government contracts rather than just showing a demonstration model.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

LBA Systems exists because Leonardo needed a combat-proven airframe faster than its own development pipeline could deliver, while Baykar needed a route into NATO and EU defence budgets that its Turkish origin alone does not open.

Pairing Baykar's TB3 airframe with Leonardo's sensors, mission systems and ground control splits the work along each firm's existing strength rather than either building the missing half independently.

What could happen next?
  • Meaning

    LBA Systems moving from assessment to fully operational status lets it bid the Astore Levante into live European procurement competitions.

  • Consequence

    The Leonardo-Baykar split, Turkish airframe paired with Italian sensors, gives Astore Levante a NATO-aligned production base that a Baykar-only export would not carry.

Sources:Milliyet
Mentions:LBA Systems →Leonardo →Baykar →Astore Levante →Bayraktar TB3 →Indonesia →Italy →Libya →Ankara →Kızılelma →Azerbaijan →NATO →Turkey →Ukraine →
First Reported In

Update #16 · BAE unveils Britain's first combat drone

Milliyet· 24 Jul 2026
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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.