A Bayraktar AKINCI Offensive Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) from the Sudanese Air Force inventory shot down a twin-turbofan aerial vehicle using an air-to-air munition. The footage that emerged on social media and quickly garnered significant attention showed that unmanned aerial vehicles have now reached the capability to hunt not only ground targets but also moving manned fighter jets.
While it is assessed that the munition used was the ROKETSAN-made EREN loitering munition, experts have also suggested that it could be the SUNGUR air defence missile. Both munitions are among the domestic systems that can be integrated into the AKINCI platform.
Unmanned Dogfight in the Air: AKINCI vs. AKINCI
In a historic event that took place in recent weeks and which we also reported on, a Sudanese army AKINCI TİHA shot down another Ethiopian AKINCI in mid-air, again using EREN ammunition. For the first time in aviation history, a Turkish armed unmanned aerial vehicle was hunted down in a dogfight scenario by another Turkish platform.
There has been a serious tension between Sudan and Ethiopia over border security and water resources in the African geography for a long time. Both countries actively prefer Turkish defence industry products to modernise their armies. However, these recent unmanned air combats over the skies reveal a much deeper reality regarding the strategic balances in the region: Turkish weapon systems have become the standard striking power across almost the entire African continent today. However, countries with stronger diplomatic and strategic ties to Türkiye have faster access to advanced air-to-air munitions like EREN. It is clearly evident that even between two armies using the same platforms, absolute superiority can be created in the field thanks to differences in munitions and equipment.
100 km Range Hunter: Roketsan EREN Munition
Developed by ROKETSAN engineers, EREN stands out as a high-speed, smart loitering munition. The platform can loiter in the air for extended periods before reaching its target and performs surprise attacks by achieving high speeds upon detection. In firing tests conducted from the AKINCI, the system had already proven its high-precision direct strike capability from distances exceeding 100 kilometres.
Thanks to its advanced seeker head, the EREN munition autonomously tracks hostile aerial elements using radar and electro-optical systems. With this technological infrastructure, the system hunts enemy UAVs, helicopters, and other low-speed aerial targets with a high hit rate. A loitering munition fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle successfully striking a moving aerial target is considered a tremendous engineering achievement, both aerodynamically and algorithmically. This event confirms under real combat conditions how lethal and accurate EREN's guidance algorithms are.
Combat Doctrines Are Changing
These two consecutive events over African skies clearly show how rapidly warfare concepts are changing. The wars of the future will no longer be fought only between manned fighter jets but between hunting unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous munitions. More importantly, unmanned systems now pose a lethal threat to manned fighter jets as well.
The successful destruction of first an AKINCI and then an aerial vehicle by the ROKETSAN EREN munition elevates the appeal and value of Turkish munitions in the global export market to its peak. In the future, countries purchasing the AKINCI or other Turkish UCAVs will inevitably also want to include smart munitions like EREN in their inventories to gain air-to-air capability. The Sudanese military emerging victorious from these aerial engagements back-to-back has proven to the entire world that munition diversity is as vital as the platform itself.
AKINCI's Record and Technical Infrastructure
Behind all these successes lies the impressive technical capacity of the AKINCI platform developed by Baykar. The AKINCI B version recently broke the altitude record for an aerial vehicle produced in Türkiye by reaching 40,000 feet. This altitude capability provides the platform with a unique operational advantage in both reconnaissance and strike missions. Capable of patrolling at high altitude, AKINCI, when combined with air-to-air munitions such as EREN or SUNGUR, transforms into an effective air-to-air hunter platform against both other UAVs and manned aerial assets. ROKETSAN General Manager Murat İkinci's naming of the EREN munition after martyr Eren Bülbül also reveals the emotional connection and national motivation behind this strategic system.
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