Anadolu Agency reported that Turkish firm STM is preparing to deliver over 500 Kargu Kamikaze drones to the Turkish Armed Forces. STM Defense Technologies Engineering, which offers Kamikaze drones for use by security forces, continues its efforts for more advanced products and exports at the Ostim Technopark facilities in Turkey’s capital Ankara. Additional health measures have been taken at the compound to shield employees against the novel coronavirus, with intense work now on orders received for the Autonomous Rotary Wing Attack Drone Kargu, which recently entered the Turkish Armed Forces’ inventory.
Turkey’s KERKES Project aims to provide image-supported autonomous navigation capability to UAV Platforms in combat environments where GPS information is not available or where GPS is jammed/deceived. This project will enable the drone swarm to function smoothly in any environment. Twelve to eighteen months after completion of the KERKES program, STM could offer Kargus with full swarming abilities to the Turkish Army. The development of the Kargu platform now in use by the Turkish Armed Forces for roughly a year has benefited greatly from field use. With its advanced machine vision capabilities, Kargu can function both as a single platform and as part of a swarm of up to 20 platforms.
There has been great international interest in the Kargu after its use by the Turkish Armed Forces. It has proven its success in tropical, desert and tundra climate conditions, with talks now underway with three countries for the export of the kamikaze drone. Having previously participated in tests and trials in different countries, the Kargu has been admired for its performance. High-level talks conducted with Turkey’s friendly and allied countries have made significant progress. The STM is preparing to achieve its first export success story in autonomous systems by soon completing export negotiations. With the Kargu’s field successes, foreign interest in the drones is expected to increase even more.
KARGUâ„¢ is an indigenous rotary wing UAV solution that can be deployed and operated by a single personnel in both autonomous and manual modes, and that has been engineered specifically for anti-terror and asymmetric warfare scenarios. KARGUâ„¢ can rapidly and effectively respond against stationary or mobile targets (i.e. vehicles, persons etc.) through its embedded real-time image processing capabilities and deep learning algorithms. The system is comprised of the rotary wing attack drone (RWAD), a ground control unit, and an UAV recharging station components.
