Turkey’s Bayraktar Kizilelma Unmanned Fighter Jets Achieve Autonomous Close Formation Flight

Turkey’s Bayraktar Kizilelma unmanned fighter jets have completed first ever autonomous close formation flight by two unmanned combat aircraft, Baykar said on December 28.

The test was conducted at the Akinci Flight Training and Test Center in Corlu, where the third prototype (PT3) and fifth prototype (PT5) took off one after the other and executed a close “finger-four” formation. The aircraft coordinated their movements in real time using intelligent fleet autonomy algorithms and autonomous combat pilot systems developed by Baykar, without direct human input.

“For the first time in world aviation history, two unmanned combat aircraft performed close formation flight autonomously,” Baykar General Manager Haluk Bayraktar said in a social media post.

The flight test also included a combat air patrol mission, a core element of modern air warfare. The two Kizilelma prototypes flew a predefined patrol route under fleet autonomy software, demonstrating the feasibility of air defense missions conducted by formations of indigenous unmanned fighter aircraft. Such patrol and interception missions are normally flown by manned fighter jets to protect designated areas.

Baykar said the achievement shows that complex aerial missions traditionally carried out by piloted fighters can be transferred to autonomous systems, enabling multiple unmanned platforms to operate together under a single lead command while autonomously adjusting their positions.

The formation flight follows another milestone announced in November, when Kizilelma became the first unmanned combat aircraft to destroy a jet-powered aerial target using a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile during a test off the coast of Sinop.