Turkey is ahead of China? Unmanned combat aircraft shoots down a jet target

November 30 report, Turkey said its combat drone KIZILELMA shot down a jet target with a radar-guided beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile over Sinop.

This is the first time a unmanned combat aircraft has completed the entire air combat process globally, and Turkey has blown a lot about it, emphasizing that it is "number one in the world".

The key to this Turkish test lies in the completeness of technical actions. KIZILELMA used an active electronically scanned array radar to search for targets, autonomously completed locking and missile launch, and finally directly hit the jet target with an air-to-air missile.

For any country, allowing an unmanned combat aircraft to complete the entire process of search - lock - launch - hit is of milestone significance, which means that unmanned platforms have entered the stage of combat entities from flying vehicles.

Turkey emphasized that this is the first publicly confirmed case of an unmanned combat aircraft shooting down a jet-powered target, which indeed has rarity.

However, this test is still a motion verification, not involving complex electronic warfare environments, combat-level evasive maneuvers, and high-intensity confrontation scenarios. It is still difficult to compare with China's systematized construction in the field of unmanned fighter aircraft.

China has long promoted multi-aircraft coordination tests led by the J-20 series and has already deployed combat drones in actual operations.

In comparison, Turkey currently mainly relies on Ukrainian engines, the platform's stealth capability is limited, and the autonomous air combat AI has not been publicly displayed yet. Some key links are still in the functional verification stage.

The advantage of KIZILELMA is low cost and flexible platform, but this cannot replace the absence of an industrial system and high-end military industry chain.

Turkey has accomplished a global "first action", but has not touched the complex combat system that China is building.

Original text: toutiao.com/article/1850278291091468/

Statement: The article represents the views of the author.