Click to see full-size image. (X)
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced on July 2 that it had shot down a drone of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over the White Nile State in the southeast of the country.
The military, which is allied to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, have been engaged in a power struggle with the paramilitary group, backed by the United Arab Emirates, for more than three years now.
In a statement posted on its official Facebook page, the SAF said that its air defenses had successfully intercepted and shot down a “hostile” Chinese-made FH-95 combat drone over the town of Tendelti.
The FH-95 was developed by Aerospace Times Feihong Technology Company, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
The combat drone has an operational range of 2,500 kilometers, an endurance of 24 hours and a service ceiling of over 42,000 feet. It first appeared with the RSF more than a year ago, with reports at the time suggesting that the UAE was the supplier.
Tendelti borders North Kordofan State to the west, where the RSF have intensified drone strikes on the state capital, El-Obeid.
While the SAF said that the FH-95 was shot by “air defenses,” footage released by the military revealed that the drone was in fact intercepted by another combat drone, a Turkish-made Akıncı.
The Akıncı, developed by Bayraktar, has an operational range of 7,500 kilometers, an endurance of up to 25 hours and a service ceiling of over 40,000 feet. The drone is seen in the footage firing what may be an EREN high-speed loitering munition.
The EREN, which weighs just 35 kg, is a hybrid between a missile and a drone. It can be launched from air, land, and naval platforms to engage slow-moving aerial targets, like drones, armored vehicles, and maritime targets with pinpoint accuracy.
The loitering munition has a range of up to 100 kilometers. It utilizes a GPS-aided inertial navigation system, and an Imaging Infrared seeker with an artificial intelligence-based automatic target recognition system.
The SAF have been operating Akıncı drones for well over a year. Satellite imagery from last February also showed that Akıncıs based at Sharq El Owainat Airport in Egypt — and possibly operated directly by Turkey — have been supporting the military in its fight against the paramilitary group.
This incident marks the third time an Akıncı supporting the SAF has shot down an RSF drone. In the two previous cases, the drones downed were also Akıncıs, reportedly supplied by the UAE and operated from Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar airport in support of the RSF. EREN munitions were used in both cases, most likely.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com