In a historic first for combat aviation, Türkiye’s Bayraktar Kizilelma unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) has successfully engaged and destroyed an aerial target using an indigenous beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile.

The live-fire test, conducted late last month over the Black Sea near Sinop, marked the first publicly demonstrated instance of an unmanned fighter jet shooting down a high-speed, jet-powered target with a radar-guided missile.

This milestone elevates UAVs from their traditional roles of surveillance and ground strikes into the most contested realm of airpower: air-to-air combat and air superiority. 

The demonstration of a fully domestic kill chain, from detection by homegrown AESA radar to target destruction by an indigenous missile,  indicates a new era of sovereign capability for the country. It also represents an inflection point in global airpower, challenging long-held assumptions about the roles and limits of unmanned systems, evolving airpower doctrine, and the balance of power in the region and beyond.

For decades, unmanned aircraft were largely relegated to intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and limited strike roles. Early systems like the US MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones, or Türkiye’s own Bayraktar TB2, excelled at spotting and attacking ground targets but played no part in controlling the skies. 

The Bayraktar Kizilelma, by contrast, is built from the outset as a UCAV capable of air-to-air engagements. Its recent missile test validated this design philosophy: it tracked a fast, jet-powered drone using its onboard radar and neutralised it at range with a domestically developed beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile.

Crucially, Kizilelma is

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