Algeria will become the first export customer in North Africa to use the Aksunkur unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) after ordering six drones from Turkey.
Designed by Turkish Aerospace International (TAI), the Aksungur is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV with high payload capacity, making it an ideal platform for ISR and offensive operations. The Aksunkur drone is a variant of TAI’s Anka drone. The fixed-wing drone has a twin-boom configuration. It has a length of 12.5 m, a height of 3.1 m and a wingspan of 24.2 m.
The Aksunkur drone can be configured in three different types of missions, including surveillance and reconnaissance, ground attack and maritime patrol versions. It comes with three different payload options integrating electro-optical (EO) / infrared (IR) cameras / laser designators (LD) / laser rangefinders (LRF), synthetic aperture radar (SAR) / moving target indicator au reverse synthetic soil. Aperture radar sensors (GMDI-ISAR) and a variety of air-to-ground weapons.
Each wing is equipped with three rigid points, capable of supporting a maximum weight of 500 kg. Weapons carried by the UAV include TEBER-81 (laser-guided Mk-81), TEBER-82 (laser-guided Mk-82), L-UMTAS, MAM-L (L-UMTAS guided missile variant), CIRIT . . , MAM-C (Crid guided missile variant), HGK-3 (Precision Guidance Kit), KGK(82) (Wing Assisted Guidance Kit) and small diameter bombs.
Algeria has continuously improved its drone capability and has purchased a large number of MALE drones from several countries, especially China. Algeria operates the Rainbow CH-3, CH-4B, CH-5 and Wing Loong II as well as several types of indigenous UAVs.
In 2018, the Algerian Ministry of National Defense (MDN) displayed two Chinese-made CASC CH-4 and CH-3 drones in a hangar. The acquisition of this type of unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) makes Algeria one of the few African countries to deploy armed drones in combat, behind Nigeria and Egypt.
In 2019, the Ministry of National Defense (MDN) said in a statement on April 30 that Algeria’s new El Djazair 54 and El Djazair 55 drones carried out several airstrikes against militants in the country.
This is the first time the DND has announced a drone strike, although it is not yet clear whether this is the first time the El Djazair have carried out an airstrike. The El Djazairs (54 and 55) are both local versions of the Adcom Systems Yahbon Flash 20 and United 40 drones designed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which Algeria entered into service on December 30, 2018.
Earlier this year, a Chinese-made ASN-209 surveillance drone crashed in a field in M’sila, Algeria on Monday, September 12, 2022. The ASN-209 drone crashed in the village of M ‘Sila, 233 km southeast of Algiers.
