Turkish Defence News

KIZILELMA Strikes with ASELSAN’s TOYGUN in First Fully Indigenous Guidance Test

<p>Baykar's Bayraktar KIZILELMA struck a ground target using ASELSAN's TOYGUN targeting system with LGK-82 and TEBER-82 bombs — its first firing to designate targets with TOYGUN as the primary sensor.</p>

Photo of a Bayraktar Kizilelma stealth drone.

Turkey’s Baykar completed a late-June 2026 firing test in which its Bayraktar KIZILELMA unmanned combat aircraft found the target with its own electro-optical sensor and destroyed it with two guided bombs, in a test carried out entirely with indigenous systems. ASELSAN’s TOYGUN system designated the fixed ground target, which was then struck by ASELSAN’s LGK-82 and ROKETSAN’s TEBER-82 guidance kits.

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KIZILELMA is a jet-powered, carrier-capable unmanned fighter that Baykar is developing for loyal-wingman missions with crewed fighters, including future teaming with the KAAN, and is built around a low-observable design logic for high-survivability operations. Baykar’s stated figures give it a top speed of around Mach 0.9, a combat radius of roughly 500 nautical miles and a service ceiling near 45,000 feet.

The trial was the first munition-guidance firing on KIZILELMA to use TOYGUN as its primary sensor, showing that the aircraft can find and prosecute its own targets in a stand-in role without relying on a separate designating platform. Baykar said the targeting and laser designation were handled by the national TOYGUN system while the aircraft preserved its low-visibility advantage. The result confirmed its integration with indigenous avionics and munition systems.

ASELSAN’s general manager, Ahmet Akyol, called TOYGUN the “sharp eye” of KIZILELMA, saying the system targets and designates while preserving the aircraft’s low-observable advantage before LGK and TEBER deliver the strike.

ASELSAN developed the TOYGUN electro-optical system specifically for low-observable aerial platforms, allowing it to detect, track and laser-designate targets without raising the aircraft’s radar signature.

The LGK-82 laser-guided bomb pairs an ASELSAN kit with a standard Mark 82 body in the 500-pound class, in a layout resembling the American Paveway series, and can reach roughly 12 kilometres when released from a fighter. The same kit has been applied to both NATO-standard Mark 82 bombs and Russian-standard FAB-series general-purpose bombs.

ROKETSAN’s TEBER-82 guidance kit combines GPS and inertial navigation with a semi-active laser seeker, allowing both pre-planned and dynamic engagements with metre-level precision. Its broader targeting envelope gives the aircraft longer stand-off utility against static and mobile targets.

ROKETSAN’s general manager, Murat İkinci, said the TEBER-82 struck its target and that the partners were continuing to build strength through jointly developed national technologies. The firing underscored Turkey’s drive to source its combat systems at home, even as Ankara lines up tens of billions in NATO defence contracts in parallel.

The June firing extends a run of weapons trials that resumed with a March 2026 test in which KIZILELMA released LGK-82 and TEBER-82 bombs from its fifth prototype, having first tested the TEBER-82 in late 2025. The aircraft is expected to add other air-to-surface weapons, including the KGK winged guidance kit, members of the TOLUN glide-bomb family and the ÇAKIR compact cruise missile.

KIZILELMA also achieved its first air-to-air kill in April 2026, firing a TÜBİTAK SAGE GÖKDOĞAN missile guided by ASELSAN’s MURAD radar over the Sinop range. That test flew a five-aircraft formation alongside F-16 fighters. The exercise rehearsed the manned-unmanned teaming Baykar is now trialling with crewed aircraft.

Baykar has reported first KIZILELMA deliveries in early 2026, and the program’s next indicators will be a sustained test tempo and evidence of reliable teaming with crewed aircraft.

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