The Pakistan military drone team has won silver at the first Best International Military Drone Team Competition in Ankara, finishing second in the team event behind host nation Turkiye, while Captain Talha added an individual silver medal after placing second among more than 100 pilots from around the world.
The week-long competition, organised by the Turkish Land Forces Command and known by its initials BIMDTC, brought military drone pilots together at Temelli in Sincan, on the outskirts of the Turkish capital. The finals were held on October 24, when the leading teams flew a demanding first-person-view (FPV) course lined with 23 obstacles against the clock.
How the Pakistan military drone team earned silver
In the team final, Turkiye’s pilots set the pace with a time of 41.417 seconds. The Pakistan military drone team completed the course in 50.253 seconds to take second place, just ahead of Italy, whose 50.680 seconds earned third, while France finished fourth in 57.142 seconds, according to results reported by Anadolu Agency. The margins show how tight the contest was: Pakistan beat Italy by less than half a second over the full obstacle course.
Captain Talha’s individual performance was just as striking. Flying against a field of more than 100 pilots, he finished second overall to claim the individual silver medal, giving Pakistan two podium finishes at the inaugural event. FPV flying is a severe test of reflexes and judgement: pilots see only the drone’s live camera feed through goggles and must react instantly while threading the aircraft through gates and obstacles at speed.
A first-of-its-kind contest for the world’s militaries
BIMDTC-2026 was the first competition of its kind run by the Turkish Land Forces. Turkiye’s defence ministry spokesman, Rear Admiral Zeki Akturk, told a weekly briefing on October 22 that 32 countries were taking part, 18 of them competing and 14 attending as observers, while Anadolu Agency put the overall field at 33 countries with 19 competing teams. Turkiye itself fielded five separate teams drawn from different branches of its armed forces.
Under the rules, each country could enter a team of up to three people, including at least two FPV pilots, and all participants had to be active-duty or reserve military personnel. The event ran from October 19 to 25 alongside a defence industry exhibition, with flight demonstrations on October 23 and the finals on October 24, designated Distinguished Observer Day. The week also produced diplomacy: Turkiye, Qatar, Indonesia and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation, covering production, training and research, on the sidelines of the competition.
Why FPV skills are suddenly so valuable
FPV drones have become one of the most closely watched technologies in modern warfare since the war in Ukraine showed how small, cheap aircraft flown by skilled pilots can damage equipment worth many times their cost. Armed forces worldwide are now racing to build training pipelines for drone pilots, and competitions like the one in Ankara let them measure their standards against each other in a controlled setting.
Pakistan has been building the wider technology base behind such skills at home, from the university space research recognised in our story on the UCP Space Research Center’s award at SEE Pakistan 2026 to the telecom milestone in our report on the Universal Service Fund crossing $1 billion, and the medtech success of Byonyks winning the Pakistan final of the Startup World Cup. A silver medal against the host nation and a strong European field is a sign that the Pakistan military drone team belongs in that company.
Sources
- Bloom Pakistan
- Capital News Point
- Envanter Medya
- Breaking Defense
- Photo: Capital News Point
Umar is an engineer by profession and a passionate writer by passion. He has a deep interest in sharing good news related to Pakistan and has been working hard to promote the positive image of his homeland. Umar has written numerous articles on various topics related to Pakistan, such as technology, sports, culture, and economy.