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Proud of Saying ``We Didn`t Leave Anyone Behind`` Gendarmerie Aviation Department Celebrates Its 55th Anniversary

Today, Gendarmerie Aviation, an unshakable symbol of the power of the Gendarmerie General Command, a subordinate of the Ministry of Interior, which continues to serve in line with its vision of being an exemplary law enforcement agency that provides respectable, reliable and quality service in the national and international arena, carries out all kinds of natural disasters, search/rescue, sanitary evacuation, etc. duties entrusted to it within the scope of public aid activities, with great devotion, on a 24/7 basis throughout the country, in addition to its task of struggling the terrorists with experienced and devoted flight crew, more than 100 manned and unmanned fixed and rotary wing aircraft and modern technologies, some of which are the product of their own R&D studies, initiated in the light of the lessons learned in the tasks performed.

Date: Issue 125 - August 2023 Update: October 08, 2024

Adopting the principle of “We will not leave anyone behind” throughout its 55-year history, the Gendarmerie Aviation Department provides the Gendarmerie General Command, which serves 93% of Türkiye's land area and 30% of the population, the aviation support it needs in a timely, effective and uninterrupted manner due to the characteristics of the region of responsibility in the execution of its duties entrusted with the legal legislation.

Gendarmerie Aviation, which started with a small number of AB-206 Helicopters in Diyarbakır in 1968, started to organize throughout the country in order to meet the increasing need for air support of the Gendarmerie General Command over time and put the modern aircraft offered by technology into service, and it has reached a significant air power today comprising with over 70 fixed and rotary wing manned aircraft such as T129 ATAK Attack and Tactical Reconnaissance Helicopter, T-70, S-70i, S-70A-17/28, AB-205 (UH-1) and Mi-17-1V Utility Helicopters, AutoGyro Cavalon Gyrocopter, King Air B-350 JIKU (Gendarme Manned Reconnaissance Aircraft) and Citation C680 Sovereign Command and Control Aircraft as well as more than 20 Tactical and Operative Class Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) such as BAYRAKTAR TB2 and ANKA-S. Gendarmerie Aviation Department, which has carried out more than 500,000 hours of flight with manned aircraft from August 1968 to July 2023, has performed an average of 20,000 hours of flight per year with manned aircraft, while the Gendarmerie UAV Command, whose total flight hours have reached approximately 170,000 hours from 2017 to July 2023, also performs over 35,000 hours of flight per year with Tactical and Operative Class UAVs. The total flight time realized with drones of different capabilities, the number of which exceeds 3,500, has reached 450,000 hours. In today's security environment where risks and threats are constantly changing, Gendarmerie Aviation Department, which has gained the trust and appreciation of our nation with its outstanding efforts and achievements in all tasks, aims to increase the number of aircraft in its inventory by 50% in the next 4 years, the number of pilots to 450 and the number of technicians to 512.