Turkey’s Baykar claims to have scored an aviation first with its Kizilelma unmanned air combat vehicle (UCAV) shooting down a target drone with a beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air air missile.
A video posted on-line shows the Kizilelma taking off with a single Turkish Sage Gokdogan BVR weapon on a pylon under its right wing.
The aircraft is shown in flight with Turkish air force F-16s before launching the weapon. A camera mounted on the target drone shows the missile approaching for what the company calls a direct hit.
The work involved the UCAV first locking onto the target using its Aselsan Murad 100-A active electronically scanned array radar.
Baykar did not disclose the degree to which autonomy and human operators played a role in the engagement.
The milestone comes days after the Kizilelma was able to lock-on to an F-16 and engage it with a simulated missile launch.
The Kizilelma’s successful weapons test comes as the industry awaits an air-to-air missile shot from the Boeing MQ-28A Ghost Bat in Australia.
The Ghost Bat test will use a Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile against an airborne target. Boeing has suggested that the Australian missile shot will involve a large degree of autonomy on the part of the aircraft.