Turkish defense company STM, announced that its KarguFPV drone achieved a direct hit and penetrated an armoured vehicle during a first live-fire test with an armour piercing warhead.
Developed as a first person view (FPV) kamikaze drone, KarguFPV previously deployed anti personnel warheads and is designed to combine high autonomy with image processing and artificial intelligence for precision strikes. STM said the addition of an armour piercing warhead expands the platform’s target set to include armoured vehicles and protected positions.
“We have started to use an armour-piercing warhead on the KarguFPV, which we have equipped with different payloads. Thus we have successfully tested, for the first time in Türkiye, a domestically produced FPV with an armour-piercing munition warhead,” STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz said.
STM described KarguFPV as an operator assisted system that can employ either anti-personnel or armour piercing munitions to neutralise threats in asymmetric environments. The drone features a day/night camera, high maneuverability, and a low radar cross section, the company said. Integrated fibre-optic tethering is intended to allow operations without reliance on GPS or radio frequency links and to improve resilience against electronic warfare.
Technical and operational details released by STM include a mission radius of 10 kilometres, endurance exceeding 20 minutes in kamikaze mode and up to 44 minutes in observation mode without warhead or fuze, an operational flight ceiling of 500 metres with a maximum service ceiling of 5,500 metres, and a top speed of 160 km/h. The platform uses military-grade fuzes compliant with MIL-STD-331 standards and can perform an autonomous terminal dive guided by onboard image processing and an adjustable proximity fuze for timed detonation.
STM noted compatibility between KarguFPV and the wider KARGU family: its armour piercing and anti personnel munitions, including standard fuzes, can be used interchangeably across both systems without modification. The company highlighted the platform’s claimed capability to operate in contested electromagnetic environments while maintaining precision targeting.
