HAVELSAN is working on a “digital unity” in which unmanned aerial, land and naval vehicles will serve together, and aims to demonstrate the first applications of the concept in the field this year..
HAVELSAN has been working on the “swarm operation capability”, which enables unmanned vehicles to perform missions together, and aims to cross an important threshold this year.
HAVELSAN, which first introduced the “digital unity” concept at the 15th International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF 2021), plans to put the unmanned vehicles, which have reached a certain level of maturity, into the field this year.
Mehmet Akif Nacar, General Manager of HAVELSAN, gave information about digital unity activities and the Barkan Project, an unmanned land vehicle.
“We Will Start Field Demonstrations”
Stating that unmanned land, air and sea vehicles have attracted great interest recently, Nacar said that this year they will present examples of digital unity concepts created with the use of these platforms. Nacar said:
“We are carrying out many infrastructural works related to field activities with our teammates. In 2023, we will start their demonstrations in the field. The components we have been talking about so far have gradually become ready. It is time to show how Barkan, Baha, Sancar will work as a component of the digital unity, and how ‘single soldier’ will be positioned within the unity. Therefore, our friends will start to carry out some testing and verification work related to this.”
New Features On Barkan-2
Emphasizing that they have developed various products to take part in digital cooperation and have made improvements on them over time, Nacar said the following about the unmanned land vehicle Barkan:
“It was a product tested in the field for 2 years. In line with the expected needs, the product was updated and Barkan-2 emerged. New features were added to the product. For example, the vehicle we presented at SAHA Expo included a 12.7 millimeter weapon system, whereas before there was a 7.62 weapon. Design work on this has been completed and production is underway. A small number will be put into inventory and tested. As a result of the tests, we will start mass production very soon. We think we will start mass production in the first half of 2023. There are currently Barkans being used for testing.”
Under the leadership of HAVELSAN, testing and platform improvement activities are also being carried out for the Kapgan, a medium class-2 unmanned land vehicle developed in cooperation with leading companies in its field.
