The Baykar Bayraktar KIZILELMA unmanned combat aircraft achieved a historic milestone by carrying out, for the first time in the world, a fully autonomous coordinated flight between two unmanned fighters, without any human intervention.
The feat reinforces Türkiye’s progress in developing next-generation combat air systems.
Developed entirely with its own resources, the Bayraktar KIZILELMA, the country’s first unmanned fighter aircraft, continues to accumulate pioneering achievements in world aviation. About a month ago, the model had already made history by becoming the world’s first unmanned fighter to shoot down an aerial target, firing a beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air missile guided by its internal AESA radar.
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Coordinated flight without human intervention
In the latest test, the KIZILELMA PT3 and PT5 prototypes took off in sequence and performed a melee flight under the control of advanced fleet autonomy algorithms developed by Baykar. During the mission, the aircraft autonomously adjusted their relative positions, maintaining formation and flight integrity, demonstrating, in practice, the ability to coordinate between unmanned platforms.
According to the company, this is the first time in the history of military aviation that two unmanned warplanes carry out a fully coordinated flight, operating as an aerial formation without the direct supervision of human pilots.
Combat Air Patrol also validated
In addition to the formation flight, the rehearsal included the successful execution of a Combat Air Patrol (CAP) mission, one of the pillars of modern aerial combat. At this stage, the prototypes followed a pre-determined route, conducting the air defense mission with exclusive support from fleet autonomy software.
The demonstration confirmed that tasks traditionally assigned to manned fighters — such as continuous aerial surveillance, protecting sensitive areas and responding to threats — can be transferred to fleets of unmanned combat aircraft operating autonomously.
Path to the air combat of the future
Throughout the testing process, the aircraft’s joint operation, tactical coordination and autonomous decision-making capabilities were closely monitored. According to Baykar, KIZILELMA’s intelligent fleet autonomy infrastructure paves the way for complex aerial operations involving multiple unmanned platforms acting in an integrated manner.
The advance is seen as a watershed for military aviation, indicating that, in addition to cooperation between manned and unmanned aircraft, fully autonomous fleets of fighters could, in the future, play central roles on the aerial battlefield.
Source and images: X @SavunmaSanayiST. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
