Kamikaze UAV “DELİ” to enter Turkish inventory

The Tactical Kamikaze System named DELİ, developed locally by TİTRA Technology, is targeted to enter the Turkish inventory in 2023.

The warhead used for the Kamikaze UAV is produced by TÜBİTAK Defense Industries Research and Development Institute.

The system was exhibited for the first time at the Defense and Aerospace Industry Fair SAHA EXPO 2022.

TITRA Technology General Manager Dr. Davut Yılmaz spoke to to Defensehere.com about the Kamikaze UAV.

Stating that the project started 1 year ago and there are ongoing tests, Yılmaz said:

"This project, which we call "DELİ", is a loitering munition project that we started about a year ago.

We've been testing for about 6 months and now we're at the final stage of testing. The point we have arrived at is the ammunition detonation tests, which we aim to complete in a few months.

Therefore, we are in a level of preparation to enter the inventory at the beginning of 2023. The point we have come to for now is that it can stay in the air for about 75 minutes, has a range of 85 km, and can perform either autonomous or manual flight or mission.

The warhead we used for the Kamikaze was developed by TÜBİTAK SAGE, it has a weight of 3.1 kg and is a very effective munition.

Therefore, we consider that the Kamikaze UAV will be in a very good position in its own class in the world in terms of both its autonomous capabilities, its cost-effective structure and its warhead.

All software and platform designs of our project are carried out by the TITRA team, in this context, we do not have any external dependence. All the products we use, the so-called off-the-shelf products, do not limit us as a result.

Although we announced the project officially at the fair for the first time, there was an announcement in another fair, which I can say was a leak. Since last month, there has been a serious demand, especially from the regions where there is conflict.

DELİ is a first in its field in Turkey, because although there are products in the sense of Kamikaze UAV in Turkey, there is no Kamikaze UAV similar to our concept. Our fixed-wing kamikaze has the feature of being able to be both hand-launched or catapult thrown.

On the other hand, it has many variants, different versions, rotary and fixed wing or small-large models, however, we think that we will be different here, thanks to our cost-oriented design, our autonomous solution, and the warhead that TÜBİTAK has developed specifically for this product.

Why DELİ? The name “DELİ” comes from two places. The first is the initials of the phrase “Low-cost, Manually Throwable UAV”, as an abbreviation for an acronym. The second is inspired by the Ottomans, as you know, there was the "DELİ" union that was at the forefront in the Ottoman period, so we named it "DELİ" based on that kind of inspiration and for the first reason, since it would be the foremost among them."

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