Türkiye has achieved a major milestone in unmanned combat aviation as Baykar’s Bayraktar Kızılelma supersonic unmanned fighter jet successfully shot down a jet-powered aerial target using a beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missile during a live-fire test over the Black Sea, the company announced on Sunday.

The test was conducted off the coast of Sinop province in northern Türkiye. Baykar, Türkiye’s leading private defense and aerospace firm, shared footage and details of the exercise on social media, describing the event as a world-first for an unmanned combat aircraft engaging a high-speed aerial target with a BVR weaponry.

State broadcaster TRT reported that five Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jets, operating from the 5th Main Jet Base in Merzifon, joined the Kızılelma over the test range. The unmanned jet flew in a tight five-ship formation with the manned fighters, demonstrating seamless manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) capabilities.

Haluk Görgün, President of Türkiye’s Defence Industries (SSB), hailed the achievement as proof of Türkiye’s end-to-end mastery of advanced aerospace technologies.

“This success shows the integration of a wide engineering chain – from sensor fusion and autonomous flight control algorithms to cutting-edge radar systems and air-to-air missiles – all united toward a single objective,” Görgün said.

The Bayraktar Kızılelma, which completed its maiden flight in December 2022, is designed to operate from Türkiye’s future aircraft carrier TCG Anadolu as well as conventional runways. Capable of supersonic speeds and equipped with internal weapon bays for low observability, the jet is intended to perform air-to-air combat, close air support, missile defense suppression and strategic strike missions alongside fifth-generation manned fighters.

Sunday’s test marks the first known instance of an unmanned combat air vehicle independently detecting, tracking and destroying a jet-powered target with a live BVR missile, placing Türkiye among a very small group of nations possessing such advanced unmanned aerial combat technology. (ILKHA)