Barkan… a Turkish robotic vehicle armed with advanced capabilities

The Turkish company “Howlsan” for defense industries is preparing to launch its armed unmanned land vehicle “Barkan”.

Which was developed within the framework of the “Digital Military Units” project.

The company, which has been researching and developing in robotics and digital technologies since 2019, aims to achieve independence.

And self-reliance in the manufacture of military, civilian, land, air, sea and space vehicles with local technologies.

The deputy general manager of “Howelsan”, Muhyiddin Solmaz, said that the company has been conducting studies and research on robotic systems for more than two years.

He explained that the company began working on the production of unmanned air and land vehicles under the title of autonomous robotic systems.

And it has come a long and important way in the production of unmanned vehicles.

Solmaz said the company continues to work on unmanned aircraft in the “under the cloud” category.

And they are working to enable these systems to carry out joint operations in order to provide intelligence information.

He continued: “Our goal from the beginning was to develop independent, homemade platforms to enable the systems to deal with unmanned ground military units and drone swarms.

In addition to supporting its joint operations, and increasing the effectiveness of its field operations to serve the Turkish Armed Forces and security forces. “

He added, “Barkan was developed as an unmanned ground vehicle of the first level, according to a system that enables it to cooperate with unmanned aerial vehicles operating under the clouds, share tasks and conduct joint operations to provide intelligence information.”

Solmaz confirmed that “Howelsan” has developed two prototypes for two unmanned “Barkan” land vehicles, and the two models were able to successfully pass all necessary tests.

He explained that the development of “Barkan” came to raise the technical level in the field of performing reconnaissance operations, armed surveillance and supporting field personnel.

He explained, “Our work includes all unmanned vehicles, including land-based ones, and our main goal is to take advantage of the capabilities of artificial intelligence and provide unmanned vehicles.”

Air, land and sea are able to communicate and coordinate in order to achieve the best field results. “

He pointed out that the weight of “Barkan” is about 500 kilograms to meet the technical specifications standards set by the Turkish Defense Industries Presidency.

Pointing out that the vehicle contains a home-made “Sarp” system consisting of weapons that are controlled remotely.

The deputy director of the company indicated that “Barkan” provides the operator with a wide vision and the ability to remotely control and deal with many of the communication devices in it.

Pointing out that “Howellsan” is also working on the production of heavy self-driving land vehicles.

He stated that the goal of Howelsan is to end the field trials of the “Barkan” unmanned vehicle between July and August next.

He added, “It is clear that there will be some modifications to the vehicle according to field needs.

In fact, we are working on completing the necessary tests and officially launching the vehicle this year. “

In conclusion, he indicated that the vehicle “Barkan” will be one of the important elements in the “digital military units” project that Hulsan is developing in cooperation with the Presidency of Turkish Defense Industries.