Lentatek Built KARGI to Hunt Radars and Has Now Found an Export Buyer

Lentatek rarely makes headlines next to the big Turkish defence names, yet its KARGI loitering munition has become one of the more interesting indigenous projects in the sector. KARGI is built for one job: finding and destroying enemy air defence radars. In September 2025 the Ankara-based company also reported its first export contract for a loitering munition, a milestone that turned a long-running domestic project into an export product.

This article sets out who Lentatek is, what is publicly known about KARGI, how the system is meant to work, and what the export announcement does and does not tell us. Where figures come from analysts or press reports rather than the company, they are labelled as such.

Who Is Lentatek?

Lentatek Uzay Havacılık ve Teknoloji A.Ş. is an Ankara-based technology company that sits inside the Zorlu Group, according to its own website. Its public portfolio is wider than defence alone. The company lists unmanned and autonomous systems, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, space technologies, critical facility and border security solutions, and digital health among its business areas.

The unmanned systems line is where its defence reputation comes from. Lentatek says it has built Micro, Mini, Small and Tactical UAV classes under the ARI, EFE, BORA and KARAYEL names. KARAYEL, a tactical UAV designed with the NATO STANAG 4671 airworthiness standard as a guide, is the best known. Defence press coverage has also described Lentatek as the successor to Vestel’s defence activities, and we covered the Saudi production story of that drone in our piece on Vestel Savunma’s KARAYEL. Company founding dates vary between sources, with one business database listing 2003, so treat that figure as reported rather than confirmed.

What Is the KARGI Loitering Munition?

KARGI is an anti-radiation loitering munition, sometimes called a kamikaze drone. It is launched, flies to a designated area, and stays aloft while its seeker listens for hostile radar emissions. When it finds one that matches the threats stored in its memory, and the operator approves, it dives onto the emitter.

The system was shown publicly for the first time at the EFES-2022 exercise in June 2022. Reporting from the time describes a development effort supported by TÜBİTAK, with ASELSAN, TÜBİTAK SAGE and Turkish Aerospace’s engine arm TEI among the partners and Lentatek as the prime contractor. First flight is reported to have taken place in 2018.

Several reports said KARGI was intended to replace the Israeli-made Derby loitering drone in Turkish Armed Forces service. That claim comes from press coverage of the unveiling, not from a procurement document, so it is best read as the stated intent at the time.

How Does KARGI Hunt Radars?

The method is simple in concept and hard in practice. An air defence network depends on radars that radiate energy, and an anti-radiation weapon turns that dependence against it.

• Launch. KARGI is fired from a canister using a rocket booster, after which its engine takes over.
• Loiter. Low speed and low fuel consumption let it circle an area for long periods. Analysts have estimated endurance at around six hours, an estimate rather than a company figure.
• Search. The RF seeker scans for radar signals and compares them with a library of known threat emitters.
• Attack. With operator approval, the munition switches to attack mode and dives onto the source.

The loitering itself has a second effect. A radar crew that knows an anti-radiation munition may be overhead has a bad choice to make. Switch the radar on and risk being hit, or keep it off and give up the air picture. Even a munition that never finds a target can force an air defence unit into silence.

Open reporting puts the warhead at roughly 30 kilograms of explosive, again an analyst estimate. The air vehicle is powered by the PG50 two-stroke engine from TUSAŞ Engine Industries (TEI) and uses a two-bladed pusher propeller. Press accounts say the seeker, warhead, flight engine, rocket booster, data link, propeller, fuel tank, navigation and flight control are all domestically produced. For a technical comparison with how loitering munitions differ from missiles, see our explainer on where a loitering munition stops being a missile and starts being a drone.

What Did Lentatek Add After ADEX 2022?

At the ADEX exhibition in Azerbaijan later in 2022, Janes reported that Lentatek was working on a new KARGI-based loitering munition. The notable change was an electro-optical and infrared turret under the nose in place of the RF seeker. That would let the weapon go after targets that do not emit radar signals, and an operator could scan a wide area and identify what is below.

According to the same report, the variant keeps the radar-suppression role and the high-explosive warhead and was developed by Lentatek alone, unlike the original multi-company KARGI effort. Janes said it was expected to take over from the Harop loitering munition used by Turkish forces. As with the Derby claim, that comes from press reporting rather than an official programme statement.

The change matters for one practical reason. A pure anti-radiation seeker is useless against a radar that is switched off. An imaging sensor gives the same airframe a second way to find a target.

What Is Known About the Export Deal?

On 28 September 2025, Turkish media reported that Lentatek had signed its first export for a loitering munition system. The buyer was described only as a “friend and allied country”, with no name given. Deliveries were said to start in 2025 and finish by mid-2026.

The company said the product was adapted to the customer’s requirements, with changes to its main product line and additional sensors specific to that user. Öner Tekin, Lentatek’s general manager, was quoted saying the export “opened a door” and added a specialised variant to the existing lineup. No contract value, quantity or exact variant has been disclosed, and none are given here.

Lentatek also described a wider family of loitering munitions, from long-endurance, high-altitude types to cheaper swarm-capable ones. Nothing public confirms those other models are fielded.

Where Does Lentatek Sit Among Turkish Loitering Munition Makers?

Turkish loitering munitions have so far been dominated by a few names. STM’s KARGU is the best known abroad, and our profile of how KARGU put Turkish loitering munitions on the export map covers that path. The lighter ALPAGU targets infantry units. Both are aimed at general ground targets.

KARGI is a different tool. Its purpose is suppression of enemy air defence, which puts it closer to the electronic warfare and radar-hunting world than to the small tactical munitions used against vehicles and troops. ASELSAN’s electronic support work, such as KORAL II, finds radars from the ground. KARGI is meant to find and destroy them from the air.

For readers mapping the wider field, our overview of Turkish drone makers beyond Baykar places Lentatek among the companies working outside the best-known names.

What Remains Unclear?

Several basic questions are unanswered in open sources. The number of KARGI units ordered by the Turkish Armed Forces has not been published, nor has a serial-production contract value. Range and speed figures are not given by the company in the material reviewed. Whether the export customer received the RF-seeker version, the electro-optical version or a blend is not stated.

What is firmly on record is narrower. Lentatek built a domestically developed anti-radiation loitering munition, showed it in 2022, extended the design with an imaging seeker, and says it has sold a customised version abroad with deliveries due to finish in 2026. Anything beyond that, including combat use, should wait for official confirmation.