DRONE-ON-DRONE WARFARE: Turkey Drone Strikes Again In Sudan's Escalating Air War
A new video circulating online reportedly shows a Turkish-made Bayraktar Akinci combat drone, operated by the Sudanese Armed Forces, tracking down and destroying a Chinese-made CH-95 drone flown by the rival Rapid Support Forces. The 16-second infrared clip shows a targeting reticle locking onto a fixed-wing aircraft from the drone's own camera, following it closely before the feed cuts out around the moment of engagement, consistent with a successful intercept. The incident reportedly took place over the Alga'a area, east of Sawdiri, though as with most footage circulating from Sudan's brutal civil war, it comes from open-source military trackers and has not been independently confirmed by either side. Still, the video fits a now-familiar pattern that has played out repeatedly since June, with Sudan's Akinci fleet racking up a growing tally of downed Chinese drones.
What makes these encounters notable is the technology gap on display, the Akinci is a high-altitude, long-endurance strike drone, giving it a clear advantage over the CH-95, a slower, medium-altitude reconnaissance platform that the Rapid Support Forces have relied on for scouting and strikes across Darfur and Kordofan. Sudan's military has increasingly used the Akinci's radar and air-to-air munitions to intercept these drones before they reach government-held territory, effectively turning the skies over central Sudan into a running contest between Turkish and Chinese hardware. This latest reported kill, if confirmed, would mark yet another entry in that growing list, underscoring just how much unmanned aircraft have come to define the fighting in a war that has already displaced millions of people. For now, the footage stands as another data point in a conflict where verified facts are scarce and drone warfare has become one of the few battles playing out in full view of the public.