Morocco to Buy Electro-Optical Sensors Directly from Canada for its Turkish Drone

Morocco is acquiring electro-optical systems from Canada to equip them on Turkish-made drones it soon plans to buy.

On April 18, Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (Far-Maroc) said it signed a contract to buy 13 Bayraktar TB2 combat drones for 626 million Moroccan dirhams ($70 million). This deal reportedly covers four remote control ground stations, a configurable simulation system for flying the drones, and a digital system for tracking and storing information.

A drone operation center will also be set up at a Moroccan airbase.

Bayraktar TB2s come fitted with WESCAM cameras, electro-optic systems, imaging and targeting systems manufactured by L3Harris Wescam, the Canada-based unit of L3Harris Technologies Inc.

Canada suspended export of drone technology to Turkey in early April after it found that some of the Canadian-made systems had been used by the Azerbaijani side in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as well as in Syria.

As per a C4Defence report, Morocco is now planning to source the Canadian products directly, forgoing embargo imposed on Turkey.