Türkiye’s Kizilelma Unmanned Fighter Jet Achieves Mach 0.8 Cruise Speed in High-Performance Test
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Baykar announced on January 16, 2026, that its Bayraktar Kizilelma unmanned fighter jet has confirmed a Mach 0.8 cruise speed during a high-performance test flight. The result highlights how quickly jet-powered unmanned combat aircraft are closing the gap with manned fighters in speed and operational relevance.
On January 16, 2026, Baykar Technologies announced that its Bayraktar Kizilelma unmanned fighter jet had successfully completed a new performance test flight, reaching a cruise speed of Mach 0.8. The milestone, revealed through a statement on Baykar’s official X account, represents a significant advance in Türkiye’s jet-powered unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) program. Designed to operate with performance parameters comparable to manned fighters, the Kizilelma stands at the forefront of Ankara’s drive to redefine the future of air combat. The latest test offers tangible evidence of how rapidly high-performance unmanned aviation is evolving.
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Baykar has confirmed that its Bayraktar Kizilelma jet-powered unmanned combat aircraft successfully cruised at Mach 0.8 during a high-performance test flight, marking a significant step toward fighter-like capability for unmanned air systems (Picture Source: Baykar Technologies)
Bayraktar Kizilelma is conceived as a stealthy, single-engine, carrier-capable unmanned fighter able to carry a weapons load in the order of 1.5 tonnes internally and underwing, in a maximum take-off weight class between roughly 6 and 8.5 tonnes depending on configuration. According to Baykar, earlier figures pointed to a typical cruise speed around 0.6 Mach and a maximum speed near 0.9 Mach; the latest performance sortie now validates a sustained 0.8 Mach cruise regime, moving the platform closer to the performance envelope of fourth-generation fighters rather than traditional MALE drones. The airframe combines a low-observable fuselage with canard-delta aerodynamics, twin canted vertical tails and internal bays optimised for operations from short runways and light aircraft carriers such as TCG Anadolu, while an AESA radar, infrared search and track and electro-optical targeting systems provide multi-sensor situational awareness compatible with beyond-visual-range engagements.
From the outset, Kizilelma’s development has been built around an incremental propulsion roadmap. Early prototypes flew with the Ivchenko-Progress AI-25TLT, a non-afterburning turbofan in the 16–17 kN thrust class, sufficient to de-risk airframe and flight-control development. Current high-performance configurations are associated with the AI-322F, a low-bypass afterburning turbofan that delivers around 24–25 kN of thrust in dry mode and on the order of 44 kN when the afterburner is engaged. This afterburner capability is central to Kizilelma’s ambition: it provides the additional thrust needed for short-deck operations, rapid climbs, quick accelerations near the transonic region and evasive manoeuvres at high subsonic speeds. Baykar has already demonstrated afterburner take-off tests on later prototypes, and the latest performance flight at 0.8 Mach indicates that propulsion, flight-control laws and thermal management are now being validated in a regime much closer to that of crewed combat jets, underlining the technological level reached by Türkiye’s unmanned aviation industry.
Operationally, the 0.8 Mach cruise milestone consolidates a capability built up step by step since the first conceptual work on the MIUS (Combatant Unmanned Aircraft System) program in the early 2010s. Kizilelma made its maiden flight in December 2022, then accumulated a dense series of sorties covering automatic taxi, take-off, gear-up flight profiles, repeated landings and high-speed manoeuvres. It later flew in formation with an F-16 during public demonstrations and achieved an autonomous close-formation flight between two unmanned fighter-type airframes, illustrating a first level of “smart fleet autonomy”. More recently, the platform has validated the firing of a beyond-visual-range Gökdoğan air-to-air missile using its MURAD AESA radar for detection and guidance, an important proof of concept for an unmanned aircraft performing its own BVR engagements. Against this background, the confirmation of a high-subsonic cruise regime is not an isolated event but the continuation of a coherent test sequence that links aerodynamics, mission systems and weapons employment in a single Turkish-designed platform.
From a tactical perspective, reaching a stable 0.8 Mach cruise gives Kizilelma the kinematic profile required to operate in the same time-space geometry as modern fighters and long-range air defence systems. At this speed, an unmanned fighter can compress reaction times, reposition rapidly across a combat radius that extends over several hundred nautical miles and remain synchronised with strike packages, tanker or ISR orbits without becoming a slow outlier in the formation. The performance now announced is broadly aligned with the high-subsonic envelopes of other “loyal wingman” concepts such as the XQ-58 and MQ-28, which are likewise optimised around the upper subsonic regime. In contrast to classic MALE drones, Kizilelma can realistically escort manned assets, push forward as a sensor and weapons node, act as a decoy or jammer in contested airspace and still retain enough speed, especially with afterburner, to make interception more complex for potential adversaries, particularly when combined with its low observable design and electronic warfare support.
The strategic implications go far beyond a single flight test. For the Turkish Armed Forces, a high-subsonic unmanned fighter with afterburner capability, internal weapons carriage and BVR engagement potential offers a complementary asset to manned fleets such as the F-16 and future KAAN, enabling manned–unmanned teaming, saturation tactics and persistent presence over maritime choke points in the Black Sea, the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. For Türkiye’s defence industrial base, Kizilelma has become a flagship program that brings together advanced aerodynamics, software-defined mission systems and international engine cooperation within a broader roadmap that also aims to increase the share of indigenous subsystems over time. On the international scene, Kizilelma places Türkiye among a select group of states developing jet-powered unmanned fighters and strengthens its position as an exporter of high-technology air systems for partners seeking modern airpower solutions with flexible cost, training and risk profiles.
The confirmation of a 0.8 Mach cruise speed during performance testing consolidates Bayraktar Kizilelma’s transition from an ambitious concept into a genuinely fighter-like unmanned platform. Built on a test campaign that has already covered autonomy, formation flying, carrier-style operations and BVR engagements, this latest milestone shows that propulsion, aerodynamics and mission systems are converging towards an operationally credible whole under Turkish leadership. For Türkiye and its partners, Kizilelma is emerging as a tool for deterrence, power projection and technological sovereignty in the air domain; for observers of air warfare, it is a clear signal that high-performance unmanned fighters able to share the same airspace and tempo as manned combat aircraft are no longer a distant prospect but a reality taking shape on today’s test ranges.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
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Baykar announced on January 16, 2026, that its Bayraktar Kizilelma unmanned fighter jet has confirmed a Mach 0.8 cruise speed during a high-performance test flight. The result highlights how quickly jet-powered unmanned combat aircraft are closing the gap with manned fighters in speed and operational relevance.
On January 16, 2026, Baykar Technologies announced that its Bayraktar Kizilelma unmanned fighter jet had successfully completed a new performance test flight, reaching a cruise speed of Mach 0.8. The milestone, revealed through a statement on Baykar’s official X account, represents a significant advance in Türkiye’s jet-powered unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) program. Designed to operate with performance parameters comparable to manned fighters, the Kizilelma stands at the forefront of Ankara’s drive to redefine the future of air combat. The latest test offers tangible evidence of how rapidly high-performance unmanned aviation is evolving.
Baykar has confirmed that its Bayraktar Kizilelma jet-powered unmanned combat aircraft successfully cruised at Mach 0.8 during a high-performance test flight, marking a significant step toward fighter-like capability for unmanned air systems (Picture Source: Baykar Technologies)
Bayraktar Kizilelma is conceived as a stealthy, single-engine, carrier-capable unmanned fighter able to carry a weapons load in the order of 1.5 tonnes internally and underwing, in a maximum take-off weight class between roughly 6 and 8.5 tonnes depending on configuration. According to Baykar, earlier figures pointed to a typical cruise speed around 0.6 Mach and a maximum speed near 0.9 Mach; the latest performance sortie now validates a sustained 0.8 Mach cruise regime, moving the platform closer to the performance envelope of fourth-generation fighters rather than traditional MALE drones. The airframe combines a low-observable fuselage with canard-delta aerodynamics, twin canted vertical tails and internal bays optimised for operations from short runways and light aircraft carriers such as TCG Anadolu, while an AESA radar, infrared search and track and electro-optical targeting systems provide multi-sensor situational awareness compatible with beyond-visual-range engagements.
From the outset, Kizilelma’s development has been built around an incremental propulsion roadmap. Early prototypes flew with the Ivchenko-Progress AI-25TLT, a non-afterburning turbofan in the 16–17 kN thrust class, sufficient to de-risk airframe and flight-control development. Current high-performance configurations are associated with the AI-322F, a low-bypass afterburning turbofan that delivers around 24–25 kN of thrust in dry mode and on the order of 44 kN when the afterburner is engaged. This afterburner capability is central to Kizilelma’s ambition: it provides the additional thrust needed for short-deck operations, rapid climbs, quick accelerations near the transonic region and evasive manoeuvres at high subsonic speeds. Baykar has already demonstrated afterburner take-off tests on later prototypes, and the latest performance flight at 0.8 Mach indicates that propulsion, flight-control laws and thermal management are now being validated in a regime much closer to that of crewed combat jets, underlining the technological level reached by Türkiye’s unmanned aviation industry.
Operationally, the 0.8 Mach cruise milestone consolidates a capability built up step by step since the first conceptual work on the MIUS (Combatant Unmanned Aircraft System) program in the early 2010s. Kizilelma made its maiden flight in December 2022, then accumulated a dense series of sorties covering automatic taxi, take-off, gear-up flight profiles, repeated landings and high-speed manoeuvres. It later flew in formation with an F-16 during public demonstrations and achieved an autonomous close-formation flight between two unmanned fighter-type airframes, illustrating a first level of “smart fleet autonomy”. More recently, the platform has validated the firing of a beyond-visual-range Gökdoğan air-to-air missile using its MURAD AESA radar for detection and guidance, an important proof of concept for an unmanned aircraft performing its own BVR engagements. Against this background, the confirmation of a high-subsonic cruise regime is not an isolated event but the continuation of a coherent test sequence that links aerodynamics, mission systems and weapons employment in a single Turkish-designed platform.
From a tactical perspective, reaching a stable 0.8 Mach cruise gives Kizilelma the kinematic profile required to operate in the same time-space geometry as modern fighters and long-range air defence systems. At this speed, an unmanned fighter can compress reaction times, reposition rapidly across a combat radius that extends over several hundred nautical miles and remain synchronised with strike packages, tanker or ISR orbits without becoming a slow outlier in the formation. The performance now announced is broadly aligned with the high-subsonic envelopes of other “loyal wingman” concepts such as the XQ-58 and MQ-28, which are likewise optimised around the upper subsonic regime. In contrast to classic MALE drones, Kizilelma can realistically escort manned assets, push forward as a sensor and weapons node, act as a decoy or jammer in contested airspace and still retain enough speed, especially with afterburner, to make interception more complex for potential adversaries, particularly when combined with its low observable design and electronic warfare support.
The strategic implications go far beyond a single flight test. For the Turkish Armed Forces, a high-subsonic unmanned fighter with afterburner capability, internal weapons carriage and BVR engagement potential offers a complementary asset to manned fleets such as the F-16 and future KAAN, enabling manned–unmanned teaming, saturation tactics and persistent presence over maritime choke points in the Black Sea, the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. For Türkiye’s defence industrial base, Kizilelma has become a flagship program that brings together advanced aerodynamics, software-defined mission systems and international engine cooperation within a broader roadmap that also aims to increase the share of indigenous subsystems over time. On the international scene, Kizilelma places Türkiye among a select group of states developing jet-powered unmanned fighters and strengthens its position as an exporter of high-technology air systems for partners seeking modern airpower solutions with flexible cost, training and risk profiles.
The confirmation of a 0.8 Mach cruise speed during performance testing consolidates Bayraktar Kizilelma’s transition from an ambitious concept into a genuinely fighter-like unmanned platform. Built on a test campaign that has already covered autonomy, formation flying, carrier-style operations and BVR engagements, this latest milestone shows that propulsion, aerodynamics and mission systems are converging towards an operationally credible whole under Turkish leadership. For Türkiye and its partners, Kizilelma is emerging as a tool for deterrence, power projection and technological sovereignty in the air domain; for observers of air warfare, it is a clear signal that high-performance unmanned fighters able to share the same airspace and tempo as manned combat aircraft are no longer a distant prospect but a reality taking shape on today’s test ranges.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
