STM, one of the leading companies of the Turkish defense industry, has successfully completed and delivered the KERKES Project, which enables UAVs to operate in areas without GPS.
STM Defense Technologies Engineering and Trade. A.Ş. has launched yet another game-changing technology for Turkey on the field. STM started in 2019 under the leadership of SSB; The Global Positioning System Independent Autonomous Navigation System Development (KERKES) Project has come to an end. The acceptance of the KERKES Project, which enables UAV platforms to operate independently of GPS, has been completed.
Demir: KERKES will be a game-changing technology
President of the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industry Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir announced the development with his Twitter account. Demir said, “We have successfully completed and delivered the KERKES Project, which enables our UAVs to operate in areas without GPS. With this technology that only a few countries in the world are working on, our mini UAVs will perform their duties without being affected by electronic warfare threats such as GPS blunting. This critical capability we have brought to our country will be both a deterrent for our army in homeland defense and a game-changing technology in the combat environment.”
Friendly: KERKES capability can also be integrated into land and sea vehicles
STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz stated that STM brought this technology, which only a few countries in the world are working on, to Turkey with its national engineering capabilities. Stating that KERKES and UAVs will perform their duties without being affected by the threat of electronic warfare, Güleryüz said, “In the absence of communication, location estimation can be made by processing the data and images taken from the sensors, and targets determined by artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques will be able to be hit. This skill set we obtained as a result of the KERKES Project; It will be adaptable to other mini/micro, tactical or operational UAV systems. While evaluating that this capability can also be integrated into land and naval platforms, we are always ready to meet all the advanced technology needs of our military in the field.”
President Erdoğan: KERKES is of great importance to us
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized the KERKES Project at the Presidential Government Cabinet 2020-Year Evaluation Meeting held in 2 with the words “KERKES is a big project for us, it is of great importance”.
KERKES Project
Rotary and fixed-wing UAVs, which are increasingly used in war zones and provide fast and safe attack, need global satellite navigation systems (GNSS) and especially global positioning system (GPS). It is known that GPS and RF access can often be interrupted or confused in the operation area, while there are situations where this need cannot be met uninterruptedly in line with the information received from the field. This makes it difficult for UAVs to perform missions.
The KERKES Project was signed between SSB and STM on August 23, 2019, with the short name Developing a Global Positioning System Independent Autonomous Navigation System. With the KERKES Project developed by STM engineers with sophisticated computer vision techniques and artificial intelligence algorithms, mini/micro class UAVs will now be able to perform missions in day and night conditions in the absence of GPS.
With the KERKES Project, which aims to enable rotary-wing (multi-rotor) and fixed-wing UAVs to perform missions in non-GPS environments, position estimation without GPS, mission execution without GPS, object recognition and deep learning and navigation capabilities have been gained.
Thanks to the system, the UAV, which starts its mission with the loaded map, compares the map with the data obtained from the field and successfully fulfills its mission without the need for GPS. With KERKES, UAVs will now perform missions without being affected by enemy electronic warfare threats such as GPS blunting.
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