Titra DELI concept picture. (Janes/Huw Williams)
Ankara, Turkey-based Titra is developing a hand-launched loitering munition and expects the system to be ready for production at the end of 2022.
Speaking to Janes at ADEX 2022 in Baku, the company's business development director, Şebnem Kayranci, said that work on the DELI (low-cost, hand-launched, Kamikaze, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)) commenced around three years ago and that flight tests are under way.
DELI – which Kayranci described as being at technology-readiness level 7/8 – takes the form of a small UAV and features an electric motor that powers a pusher-propeller.
DELI will feature a 2.5 kg high-explosive fragmentation warhead, flight tests with which are scheduled for October, Kayranci said.
The air vehicle is carried in a backpack and can utilise a range of different controllers depending on customer requirements, Kayranci said, noting a laptop as an example. The flight-control software has been developed in-house and enables autonomous and manual control over the target engagement cycle.
DELI can also operate in swarms of up to 21 aircraft, utilising platform-agnostic software that Titra has been developing for this purpose before it commenced work on the DELI, and which includes features such as collision-avoidance, heterogenous swarm management, multiple formation types, and decentralised decision making, among others.
According to company data, DELI has an operating range in excess of 40 km and an endurance of 35 minutes.
The air vehicle has a maximum take-off weight of 13 kg and can achieve a top speed of 150 km/h, its cruising speed is stated as 90 km/h, it has a ceiling of 3,000 m (9,840 ft), and operates at altitudes of between 150 and 500 m above ground level.
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