Turkey’s STM debuts new AI-guided kamikaze drone

Turkish defense company STM has unveiled ALPAGU-B, a larger fixed-wing loitering munition with a 40-kilometer line-of-sight range and artificial intelligence-powered target tracking, making its global debut at SAHA 2026.

STM, formally known as STM Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A.Ş., describes ALPAGU-B as the newest member of its fixed-wing loitering munition family and a direct evolution of the man-portable ALPAGU system that established the company’s reputation in the tactical strike drone segment. Where the original ALPAGU was designed for portability and close-range precision, ALPAGU-B scales those characteristics upward — more range, more explosive payload, and the same AI-driven targeting architecture applied at what STM describes as a strategic level on the modern battlefield.

The 40-kilometer line-of-sight communications range is the headline specification. For a loitering munition, that number defines the operational bubble a ground controller can work within — the distance at which the operator maintains datalink contact with the weapon while it searches, identifies, and prosecutes a target. At 40 kilometers, ALPAGU-B reaches well beyond the engagement ranges of most man-portable and light vehicle-mounted air defense systems, giving the operator meaningful standoff from the threats that would otherwise contest its use. The low radar cross-section compounds that advantage: a small, slow-moving fixed-wing platform that reflects little radar energy is genuinely difficult to detect and engage before it reaches its target.

STM’s description of AI-powered target tracking as a core capability reflects where the loitering munition market has moved since the type proved its battlefield value in conflicts from Nagorno-Karabakh to Ukraine.

First-generation loitering munitions required continuous human control or relied on GPS-guided terminal guidance. The second generation — of which ALPAGU-B is an example — integrates onboard computer vision and machine learning to identify and track targets autonomously within parameters set by the operator. The human remains in the decision loop for the strike authorization, but the weapon can hold a target lock through evasive movement, obscuration, and electromagnetic jamming in ways that a purely operator-guided system cannot. STM calls the result “surgical strike capabilities elevated to a strategic level,” which is the company’s way of saying the weapon hits what it is pointed at, at distances that matter.

ALPAGU-B’s fixed-wing configuration distinguishes it from the quadrotor and multi-rotor loitering munitions that have proliferated rapidly in the Ukraine conflict. Fixed-wing platforms trade vertical take-off and landing flexibility for aerodynamic efficiency — they fly farther, faster, and quieter per unit of battery or fuel than rotary-wing alternatives of comparable size. The trade-off is a more demanding launch and recovery profile, but for a loitering munition designed to be expended on a target rather than recovered, the efficiency advantage matters more than landing flexibility.

The company built its reputation on naval systems and autonomous platforms, and its work on swarm drone technologies has drawn international attention in recent years. The original ALPAGU established a man-portable loitering munition capability for Turkish forces and export customers, and ALPAGU-B represents the logical next step in that product line — a weapon that bridges the gap between the tactical, squad-level strike capability of the original and the longer-range precision strike missions traditionally reserved for larger, more expensive systems.