Aselsan SONGAR
Turkey's first national armed drone with a stabilised kinetic weapon system: Aselsan's SONGAR entered service in 2020 as the world's first multicopter platform fielded with an operational assault rifle.
Aselsan SONGAR
Turkey's first national armed drone with a stabilised kinetic weapon system: Aselsan's SONGAR entered service in 2020 as the world's first multicopter platform fielded with an operational assault rifle.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- Aselsan SONGAR
- Alias
- Silahlı Drone Sistemi
- Manufacturer
- Aselsan
- Country
- Turkey
- Year
- 2020
- Category
- Multirotor / Quadcopter
- Class
- Small (< 25 kg)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 10 km
- Endurance
- 30 min
- Top speed
- 70 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 2,800 m
- Propulsion
- Octacopter elettrico
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 45 kg
- Payload
- 12 kg
- Hardpoints
- 1
- Weapons
- Fucile NATO 5,56×45 mm (200 colpi), lanciagranate 40 mm, mitragliatrici leggere, mortai miniaturizzati
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- EO/IR gimbal con telemetro laser, compensazione balistica
- Datalink / control
- Datalink criptato LOS
- Launch
- Decollo verticale
- Recovery
- Atterraggio verticale
Combat use
- ▸Operations Pençe against the PKK in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq
- ▸Export to Nigeria for counter-insurgency operations (2024-)
Tags
Main operators
History
Unveiled at IDEF 2019 and in service since 2020, SONGAR is the world's first multicopter drone with a truly operational stabilised assault rifle.
The system integrates a ballistic computer compensating for recoil, wind and drone motion, enabling precision fire out to 400 m.
Aselsan's SONGAR pioneered a new drone-warfare category: a multicopter as a stabilised kinetic firepower platform, replacing guided munitions with a NATO 5.56 mm rifle firing single shots or bursts.
Recent variants (2023-) integrate 40 mm grenade launchers, miniaturised mortars and thermobaric ammunition, expanding the role from infantry overwatch to kinetic counter-drone work.