Turkish Aerospace was contracted to develop the Anka in 2004, as Turkey sought an alternative to foreign drones for watching its south-eastern borders and the PKK. The first prototype flew on 30 December 2010. In 2011 test flights grew to several hours and the aircraft demonstrated automatic take-off and landing. A prototype crashed during a test flight in September 2012, but in January 2013 the Anka completed acceptance tests for the Turkish Air Force, including an 18-hour flight, and a contract for ten production aircraft with ground stations followed in 2013.

The production standard became the Anka-S, with a satellite communications link and the ability to carry weapons. According to Defense News, an Anka flew its first operational mission on 5 February 2016 from Elazığ in eastern Turkey, a four-hour reconnaissance flight at 19,000 ft. Deliveries of the Anka-S began in 2017. In 2018 Turkey announced the type’s first satellite-controlled airstrike and, in December, its first flight with a Turkish-made engine, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. An electronic-intelligence version, the Anka-I, was built for Turkey’s intelligence service, MIT.

The Anka has been used extensively against the PKK inside Turkey and in cross-border operations in Syria and northern Iraq since 2016, including Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, Peace Spring and the Claw operations. Its biggest test came in February and March 2020, when Syrian government forces advancing in Idlib killed Turkish soldiers and Turkey responded with Operation Spring Shield. Anka-S and Bayraktar TB2 drones attacked Syrian army vehicles and air defences in large numbers. Syrian air defences shot down Ankas on 25 February and 1 March 2020.

In Libya, a United Nations panel of experts later reported that a drone shot down near Misrata in April 2020 was an Anka operated for the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord; another was lost near Tarhuna in May. On 5 October 2023 a US F-16 shot down a Turkish drone over north-eastern Syria after it flew, during Turkish strikes, within about a kilometre of US troops; it was widely identified as an Anka, operated by Turkish intelligence. Turkey’s defence ministry said it did not belong to the armed forces.

• Anka-A: original reconnaissance prototype, first flight 30 December 2010.
• Anka-B (Block B): improved development aircraft with a larger payload, including synthetic-aperture radar, first flight January 2015.
• Anka-S: production version with satellite link and weapons, delivered from 2017; the main export model.
• Anka-I: electronic and signals-intelligence version for Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT).
• Anka-3: a tailless, jet-powered flying-wing combat drone, first flight 28 December 2023, with an internal payload and a maximum take-off weight of about 6,500 kg according to Turkish Aerospace.

The Anka was slower to find export buyers than the Bayraktar TB2; the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists noted in 2019 that it remained mainly in Turkish service. An early contract with Egypt in 2012 was cancelled. The first export customer was Tunisia, which signed for three Anka-S and three ground stations in March 2020 for about US$80 million, largely financed by Turkey’s Eximbank, according to Military Africa; two more aircraft later brought its fleet to five.

Kazakhstan agreed in 2022 to buy three and build more locally. Indonesia ordered twelve in 2023, part to be assembled in Indonesia, and received the first in 2025. Malaysia bought three Anka-S for its air force’s No. 11 Squadron at Labuan, with deliveries scheduled from February 2026, according to Defence Security Asia. In January 2025 Turkish Aerospace announced a sale to Uzbekistan; the Tashkent Times also listed Algeria and Chad among operators.