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According to a statement from the company, STM, one of the leading companies in the Turkish defense industry, continues to achieve international export success with its innovative and nationally developed systems.
The company, which develops modern and rapid solutions for the changing battlefield, integrated an armor-piercing warhead into Turkey's first national strike drone, "STM Kargu" last year. After an intensive development phase, the armor-piercing Kargu successfully hit designated targets with pinpoint accuracy during test firings.
Following its impressive performance in test firings, the Kargu drone with an armor-piercing warhead has now signed its first export contract. Deliveries for KARGU are planned to be completed by 2025.
STM General Manager Ozgur Guleryuz stated that Kargu is continuously being developed according to battlefield dynamics and equipped with different payload options.
"Kargu, which has been the choice of more than 10 countries across three different continents with its anti-personnel warhead until now, will now serve the Turkish Armed Forces as well as friendly and brotherly countries with its armor-piercing warhead," Guleryuz said.
"We have signed our first export contract for this version. The fact that the armor-piercing Kargu was chosen by a country that already actively uses the anti-personnel version demonstrates once again the satisfaction with the product's reliability and effective performance," he added.
"There is strong interest in the armor-piercing Kargu from abroad, and our contacts with different countries continue. We aim to share news of new exports in the coming period. We will resolutely continue to contribute to our defense industry export targets," Guleryuz added.
According to the statement, the strike drone Kargu, also known as a "kamikaze drone" in public, was developed by STM using domestic and national capabilities.
Kargu entered the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces in 2018 and is being effectively used in counter-terrorism, special operations, and cross-border operations by various security forces in Türkiye, particularly the Turkish Armed Forces. Drawing attention in the global arena, Kargu achieved its first export success in 2021, and by 2024, it has been exported to more than 10 countries across three different continents.
User personnel can quickly switch from the anti-personnel warhead to the armor-piercing warhead based on the immediate situation in the field. While the Kargu with an anti-personnel warhead is used against enemy elements individually or in groups, the armor-piercing Kargu is effective against mobile and stationary ground targets, reinforced structures, and armored ground vehicles.
With its low radar cross-section feature, Kargu is difficult to detect in enemy territory and can be easily carried by a single soldier and deployed in the mission area within 1 minute.
The national strike drone Kargu provides a significant surprise effect and operational superiority with its artificial intelligence and image processing capabilities, silence, and ability to deliver its explosive payload to the target with precision.
Consisting of a rotary-wing strike drone and a ground control station, Kargu can perform effective operations day and night with its advanced electro-optical and infrared cameras.
Kargu can stay airborne for over 30 minutes and has a range of 10 kilometers.
It is equipped with mission abort, return-to-home, and self-destruct capabilities, along with high-performance navigation and control algorithms. There is also the KERKES Project, which allows Kargu drones to operate independently of GPS, as well as swarm drone technology that enables multiple Kargu's to perform missions together.
Kargu, meaning "observation tower on a mountaintop" and "hawk" in Old Turkish, navigates completely automatically through its mission computer.
Kargu is particularly used in threat detection and neutralization in high-risk areas without requiring soldiers to enter those zones.
Operating completely under operator control with the "man-in-the-loop" principle, Kargu provides user personnel with reconnaissance, surveillance, intelligence, and precision strike capabilities by enabling the detection and confirmation of targets in high-risk, complex conflict zones.
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