The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) shot down a Chinese-made CH-95 (FH-95) strategic drone on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, using a Turkish-built Bayraktar Akıncı combat drone. The SAF said its “ground-based air defenses” intercepted the aircraft around midday along the Export Road linking Bara and Omdurman, west of Khartoum. The SAF did not name the operator of the destroyed aircraft. Still, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group the army has fought since April 2023, is the only known user of the FH-95 in Sudan.
The FH-95, sometimes referred to by its export designation CH-95, is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle built by Aerospace Times Feihong Technology Company, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It is designed for reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and strike missions, with a takeoff weight in the 850 kg to 1,000 kg class and 4 hardpoints capable of carrying laser-guided or satellite-guided munitions. Endurance above 24 hours, its service ceiling near 42,000 feet, and its range around 2,500 km. It first appeared in RSF hands more than a year ago; regional reporting at the time pointed to the United Arab Emirates as the likely supplier route.
The Akıncı is a different class of aircraft entirely. Developed by Turkey’s Baykar as a larger, strategic successor to the combat-proven TB2, it has a maximum takeoff weight around 6,000 kg and can carry up to 1,500 kg of munitions across 9 hardpoints, split between an internal bay and external stations. Endurance exceeds 24 hours, service ceiling reaches roughly 40,000 to 45,000 feet, and range extends to about 7,500 km. It carries Turkish-made Murad-100A AESA radar and dual flight computers for sensor fusion, and it was the first drone cleared to fire the SOM-A air-launched cruise missile at a stated distance of 250 km.
The SAF has flown Akıncıs for well over a year, and satellite imagery from last February showed aircraft based at Sharq El Owainat airfield in Egypt supporting the military. In the three prior drone-on-drone kills this year, the SAF used Roketsan EREN high-speed loitering munitions, a 35-kilogram air-to-air weapon with a range of about 100 km built specifically to catch slow-moving aerial targets. Two of those earlier kills were rival Akıncıs allegedly supplied to the RSF by the UAE and flown from Bahir Dar airport in Ethiopia; the third was an FH-95.
The intercept came as fighting intensified around El-Obeid, the North Kordofan state capital, where international organizations have warned of possible atrocities as the RSF builds up forces nearby. A Sudanese rights group, Emergency Lawyers, said on July 7 that drone strikes killed at least 15 civilians in the state over the preceding two days: 13 people, including five women, died when a drone hit a vehicle carrying wedding guests near al-Shatout, and two more died when a separate strike hit a vehicle transporting water near Hamrat al-Sheikh.
Turkish-built Akıncıs now fly for the SAF, while Chinese FH-95s and reportedly Turkish Akıncıs as well have shown up on the RSF side, sourced through the UAE. That overlap in hardware is one reason rights groups increasingly struggle to identify who is responsible for individual strikes on civilians.
