Turaç Unveils Drone Kalkanı, a Shotgun-Armed Anti-Drone Turret
Turkish ammunition maker Turaç has unveiled a remote-controlled turret that fights drones with shotguns rather than missiles, betting that a cheap, mechanically simple weapon can plug a gap that expensive interceptor systems have struggled to close. The system, called Drone Kalkanı (“Drone Shield”), made its public debut this week at the 21st MÜSİAD EXPO at the Istanbul Fuar Merkezi, running September 23-26.
A Low-Cost Answer to a Cheap Threat
The logic behind Drone Kalkanı is one that has become familiar to militaries watching the war in Ukraine and recent fighting in the Middle East: first-person-view (FPV) and small commercial drones cost a few hundred dollars each, but the missile-based interceptors built to stop them can run into the tens of thousands. That mismatch has pushed defence firms worldwide toward cheaper kinetic options, and Turaç’s answer is to put two 12-gauge shotguns on a pan-tilt turret.
The turret carries a pair of Derya MAX semi-automatic shotguns, built by Turkish firearms maker Derya Arms, firing Turaç’s own Sterling-brand magnum anti-drone cartridges. According to the company, an electro-optical and acoustic sensor package supplied by Lasersan detects and tracks targets out to 600-800 metres, while the shotguns engage at roughly 150 metres, firing simultaneously to put a dense pattern of pellets — a “metal cloud” in the company’s own description — into the drone’s flight path. Target detection, classification and the firing solution are handled by onboard artificial-intelligence software, according to Turaç.
Built by a Five-Party Consortium
Turaç says Drone Kalkanı was developed under its leadership with four other Turkish companies contributing expertise in firearms, robotics, mechanical engineering, targeting algorithms and electro-optics, plus a university partner. Turaç CEO Fatih Altunbaş presented the system’s capabilities in comments carried by Anadolu Agency around the MÜSİAD EXPO unveiling, describing a turret designed to run on standard vehicle or facility power rather than a dedicated generator.
The company says the turret can be bolted onto wheeled or tracked armoured vehicles, naval vessels, uncrewed ground robots or fixed installations such as bases and critical infrastructure sites — positioning it as a modular add-on rather than a standalone system that requires its own platform.
Entering a Crowded Turkish Field
Drone Kalkanı arrives in a Turkish counter-drone market that has grown rapidly over the past two years. ASELSAN’s İHTAR, GÖKBERK and KORKUT systems cover the layered end of the spectrum with jammers, lasers and cannon, while MKE’s TOLGA and STM’s TUNGA-X interceptor target similar short-range niches with guns and dedicated interceptor drones respectively. Turaç’s pitch is different: it is not proposing to out-range those systems, but to undercut them on cost per engagement, using ammunition its own factories already produce at scale.
That overlap says as much about the size of the perceived threat as it does about competition between Turkish suppliers. Militaries from Eastern Europe to the Gulf are shopping for multiple, layered counter-drone tools rather than a single silver bullet, and a shotgun turret that costs a fraction of a missile interceptor fits naturally into the cheapest layer of that stack.
Export Path Already in Place
Turaç is not a newcomer to international markets. The company says it already exports to more than 90 countries and holds supplier status with the NATO Support and Supply Agency (NSPA), the alliance’s procurement and logistics arm — a status that gives NATO member states a pre-vetted route to buy from the company without running a fresh qualification process. That existing footprint could shorten the path from unveiling to first export order compared with a system built from scratch by a company with no prior NSPA relationship.
For now, Turaç has disclosed technical claims — detection range, engagement range, and the “metal cloud” hit-probability concept — but no independent test results, unit pricing, production timeline or launch customer. Those details, along with how the system performs against faster or smaller targets such as FPV racing drones rather than larger commercial quadcopters, will likely determine how quickly Drone Kalkanı moves from an exhibition-hall demonstrator to an operational order.
Sources: Turaç / Drone Kalkanı official product page; Anadolu Agency; Militarnyi.
