Turkey allegedly uses laser weapons to shoot down “Wing Loong II” drones in the war between the Libyan National Army (LNA) and the Government of National Accord (GNA), according to the Army Recognition newspaper.
In a report published on Monday, the newspaper said Turkey has been developing innovative weapon systems, including weapons on new technical principles, since 2010 by the Turkish company Savtag in cooperation with Tubitak, a state research institute.
These weapons are capable of shooting down a small-sized drone from 500 meters and destroy explosive devices from 200 meters.
“In 2015, Tubitak announced that experimental lasers successfully hit targets. Then it became known that the program was funded – it turned out that the Turks were pouring a lot of money into laser weapons – in 2015 alone, 450 million U.S. dollars were spent on the program,” the report said.
It added that Turkey continues to support the GNA in its war on the LNA as it makes progress toward the capital, and that Turkey has sent several shipments carrying heavy weapons to the armed groups of the GNA.
On Sunday, British newspaper the Guardian said in its report “Libya drone strike heightens fears of air war and risk of civilian deaths” that the Wing Loong drones were first used in the LNA base of eastern Libya in 2016.
Previously, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan admitted his country’s interference in the ongoing war.
“Seeing that this was not enough, the Turks began to transfer to Libya the militants previously employed in the Idlib province in Syria,” said Army Recognition.
Further, the LNA destroyed in July a Turkish drone parked at Tripoli’s only working airport, Mitiga Airport.
The Wing Loong drones were first deployed in the east of the country in 2016.
