A Bayraktar AKINCI unmanned combat aerial vehicle destroyed a target drone in flight over the Black Sea using Roketsan’s SUNGUR air defense missile, manufacturer Baykar said, the first firing of the missile from the platform.
The AKINCI took off from the Çorlu Flight Training and Test Center in Tekirdağ and flew to a test range off the coast of Sinop, where it engaged and destroyed the target UAV with SUNGUR munitions, the company said. The aircraft then returned to Çorlu along its planned route.
Baykar said the integration completes the current phase of work on the AKINCI’s air-to-air armament. The platform has previously fired the KEMANKEŞ 1 artificial intelligence-guided mini cruise missile and Roketsan’s EREN high-speed multipurpose loitering munition against airborne targets. With SUNGUR added, the company said, the AKINCI can now employ domestically produced munitions of several classes against targets in the air.
A ground-based missile adapted to an aerial launcher
SUNGUR was not designed as an air-to-air weapon. Roketsan developed it as a very short range air defense missile that can be fired from the shoulder as a man-portable system and from land and naval platforms, and it is described by the manufacturer as a fifth-generation design.
The missile is expected to replace Stinger rounds in the Turkish Armed Forces inventory. It uses an imaging infrared seeker and works on the fire-and-forget principle, with a maximum range of about 8 kilometers and a ceiling of 4 kilometers.
Provision for launch from land and naval platforms as well as from unmanned aircraft gave the technical basis for integration on the AKINCI. The AKINCI is a turboprop aircraft that operates at relatively low speed, and the lightweight infrared-guided round gives it a low-cost option against slow-moving targets such as other unmanned aircraft, helicopters and cruise missiles.
A widening munitions portfolio
Development and integration work has built the AKINCI’s weapons inventory into a broad family. The platform has so far been cleared with:
- MAM-L, MAM-L TV, MAM-T, MAM-T IIR/TV and MAM-C smart micro munitions
- the TOLUN munitions family
- TEBER-81 and TEBER-82 guidance kits, LAÇİN, LGK-81, LGK-82, HGK-82, GÖKÇE and GÖZDE guidance kits, and KGK-82-SİHA
- İHA-300 and İHA-230 supersonic missiles, and the İHA-122 supersonic missile with TV and laser seeker heads
- the ÇAKIR cruise missile and the EREN loitering munition
The range, guidance and warhead options in that inventory give the aircraft a layered attack capability from close range out to long range.
Operational significance
Adding SUNGUR opens an air defense role for an aircraft designed for strike and reconnaissance, and gives operators a cheaper interceptor than a fighter sortie against slow, low-flying threats. It also supports Baykar’s stated concept of the AKINCI as a multirole unmanned aircraft rather than a single-mission strike platform.
