BAYKAR Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Technical Officer Selçuk Bayraktar made statements about the new smart ammunition systems that Baykar is working on. He said, “The light cruise missile KEMANKEŞ will be introduced for the first time at TEKNOFEST. It is a very light cruise missile with a range of several hundred kilometres that can be launched from Bayraktar TB3. These missiles are, in a sense, digital smart munitions of the new age.”
With the Iranian-made Shahed-136 missiles used by Russia in attacking Ukraine, the new road map in front of the drones has become more apparent. Israel Aerospace Industries introduced the framework of this concept with Harpy and Harop loitering munitions. Lentatek from Turkiye draws attention with its Kargı along with Robit’s AZAB. These low-speed systems, which move with the rotation of the propeller instead of high-speed, thin and long solid or liquid fuel rocket engines, first took the name of loitering munition; now they are called cruise missiles because they can reach a range of several hundred km.
During the IDEX Fair held in Abu Dhabi in February 2023, BAYKAR company introduced KAGEM under the wings of AKINCI UCAV. The “unmanned aerial vehicle” seen under the wing of another unmanned aerial vehicle might have the characteristics of loitering munition or light cruise missiles.
