Sudan Debuts Modern Safaroog Kamikaze Drone

Defence affairs analysis

Sudan’s Military Industry Corporation has unveiled the new Safaroog single use attack drone, making it the latest of a small number of countries and the first in Africa to produce such aircraft.

This type of aircraft has gained considerable publicity for its role in the Russian-Ukrainain War, after Russia procured the Iranian Shahed 136, and subsequently produced it under license as the Geran-2. Compared to Russian and Iranian models, the Sudanese aircraft has the advantage of a modular payload, allowing it to be specially configured depending on the nature of the target. A particularly outstanding feature of the drone class is its terminal attack angle of over 60 degrees, similar to the American Switchblade drone, which allows for top attacks against enemy vehicles where their armour is more vulnerable. The ongoing insurgency by the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, which are receiving significant support from the United Arab Emirates and countries in the Western world, has raised the possibility that the Safaroog may have already been combat tested within Sudan.

Under the administration of former President Omar Al Bashir Sudan emerged from the 2000s as a leading military industrial power in Africa with the third largest defence sector on the continent centred primarily around the state-run Military Industrial Corporation. The country was a significant arms exporter across Africa and the Middle East, while its own armed forces came to be considered among the best equipped and trained on the continent. The corporation benefited significantly from cooperation with China, and increasingly from the late 2010s with North Korea, including producing the Chinese Type 59 and Type 85 main battle tanks under license as the Al Zubair and Al Bashir, and producing North Korean precision guided bombs under license. The Syrian Arab Army was reportedly a leading client for Sudanese equipment from 2011-2019, as Syria faced a Western-backed insurgency within its borders.