According to the company that develops the product, Songgal, which was in stock by security forces as Turkey’s first armed drone, continues to be exported to several markets.
Barış Düzgün, general manager of Asisguard, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that his company is working on the development of armed drones, land vehicle electronics and electro-optic cameras.
The armed drone project began with pencil drawings in 2018, showing that it has turned into a special product after two years of intensive research and development (R & D) activities, Düzgün said in line with a contract with the President of the Defense Industry (SSB). I did. In December 2019, a total of eight Songers were handed over to the gendarmerie, special forces, army, and special operations forces.
Regarding export-oriented projects, Düzgün said that with the development of Turkey’s defense industry, competition in the domestic market is intensifying and it is necessary to expand overseas.
Asisguard has selected some key areas for export, Düzgün said.
He said Africa, Asia Pacific and the Arabian Peninsula are at the forefront as the first key regions to gain market share.
We made our first export to North America, Düzgün said, explaining that there was great interest from Africa and that they host delegations from the continent every two weeks.
As a result, he said they had already signed a contract with an African country last week and their name had not been revealed by Dusgun.
He also said they are also selling to private countries in the Asia Pacific region, and their prepayments have already been received.
“We need to finish delivery this year and are ready for delivery.”
Speaking further about Songar, Düzgün said the company has accumulated significant intellectual capital and this experience has been transferred to Songar and integrated with a variety of useful loads.
He said, for example, that they integrated the weapon maker Sarsılmaz’s MPT-55.
“Songar is a 5.56mm NATO standard product and weapons are in stock. This means that it can be integrated into countries that use 5.45mm weapons. Then we integrated the 40mm grenade launcher with Akdaş Silah and launched 6 rockets. We have successfully integrated the system with the Troy Teknoloji Defense, smoke grenade, and 81mm Togan bullet TÜB0054 TAKSAGE, “he explained.
Düzgün stated that by integrating various useful loads into the drone, their purpose is not to sell the drone, but to make one particular model more functional.
“Instead of creating a different drone for each payload, we wanted to decorate the drone with this very convenient load,” he said.
Düzgün indicates that the product requested in the Asia Pacific region is the top version of Songar, and states that it will carry a 5.56 mm weapon and offer a product with night vision that can meet the user’s special needs. I did.
“This will allow us to integrate the new system into Songar and gain an edge in the new market,” he said.
Emphasizing that Songar and defense company Havelsan want to participate in the concept of “digital army” working in an environment where the use of autonomous systems on the battlefield is widespread, Düzgün added: Perform multiple flights, coordinated flights, integrate artificial intelligence, and fly with machine learning. We know that we need to evolve and that technology is moving in that direction. “
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