Ukraine's destruction of Russian artillery systems and armored vehicles with Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) has made "the whole world" a customer, according to its designer.

Selçuk Bayraktar, who runs the Istanbul firm Baykar with his brother Haluk, said the drones had shown how technology was revolutionizing modern warfare.

"Bayraktar TB2 is doing what it was supposed to do – taking out some of the most advanced anti-aircraft systems and advanced artillery systems and armored vehicles," he told Reuters in English beside the new Akıncı drone at an exhibition in Baku. "The whole world is a customer," he added.

The TB2, which has a 12-meter (40-foot) wingspan and can soar to 25,000 feet before swooping in to destroy tanks and artillery with laser-guided armor-piercing bombs, helped undermine Russia's overwhelming military superiority.

Such is the drone's renown that it became the subject of a patriotic expletive-strewn hit song in Ukraine that mocked Russian troops, with the chorus "Bayraktar, Bayraktar."

The Bayraktar drone has also received attention from Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Defense Ministry has mentioned it at least 45 times in public since the war began on Feb. 24.

Baykar, founded in the 1980s by Bayraktar's father, Özdemir Bayraktar, began to focus on unmanned aircraft in 2005 as Turkey sought to strengthen its local defense industry.

The TB2 has been such a decisive factor in the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Karabakh, and now Ukraine, that it spearheads Turkey's global defense export push.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says international demand is huge for the TB2 and the newer Akıncı.

Bayraktar said Baykar can produce 200 TB2 drones a year.