Saudi Arabia Presents Sarem Loitering Munition with 6-Hour Endurance and 100 km Strike Radius.

At the World Defense Show 2026 in Riyadh, AeroTop Systems Company and Jadwalean International Group unveiled the Saudi-made Sarem loitering munition, a delta-wing UAV derived from the LY-150 platform with six-hour endurance and a 100 km control radius. 

Army Recognition was on site at the World Defense Show (WDS) in Riyadh on 18 February 2026 when AeroTop Systems Company (ASC), alongside Saudi partner Jadwalean International Group, unveiled a delta-wing unmanned system branded Sarem. Spotted and photographed by the Army Recognition editorial team on the exhibition grounds, the platform was presented as an attritable loitering strike option derived from ASC’s LY-150 fixed-wing UAV. The messaging around the display underlined a clear regional demand signal: long-endurance drones that can stay over an area for hours, feed targeting information to operators, and then shift instantly from surveillance to a one-way precision attack mission.
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Saudi-made Sarem loitering munition, based on the LY-150 delta-wing UAV, combines 6-hour endurance, 150 km/h cruise, and a 100 km control radius with a 22 kg MTOW and up to 15 kg payload, enabling long-duration ISR and rapid transition to one-way precision strike against time-sensitive targets (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

At the technical level, the LY-150 air vehicle shown in ASC literature is a compact composite delta-wing design optimized for efficiency and rapid fielding. Basic dimensions are listed as 2,480 mm length, 425 mm height, and a 2,150 mm wingspan, with a maximum take-off weight of 22 kg and a stated task load up to 15 kg. Cruise speed is given as 150 km/h, endurance as 6 hours, and a control radius of 100 km, with an operating ceiling listed at 5,000 m and wind resistance rated to Level 6. Navigation is described as GPS/BeiDou dual-mode supported by an IMU, the airframe is full carbon-fiber composite, and deployment time is advertised as under 10 minutes with an operating temperature band from -20 C to +70 C.

The pairing with Jadwalean is strategically relevant. Jadwalean publicly markets itself as a Saudi-based services group providing support across military systems, including maintenance, repair, overhaul, and technical services for aircraft and other defense assets, which is the kind of local backbone required to turn a prototype drone into a sustained fleet capability. That industrial framing also fits the broader Saudi policy direction: the World Defense Show is closely linked to the General Authority for Military Industries and the kingdom’s defense industrial localization agenda, which targets more than 50% localization by 2030 and reports steady progress toward that goal.

Sarem’s core value proposition is time and persistence. A six-hour class fixed-wing platform with a 150 km/h cruise speed can hold wide-area orbits over border sectors, coastal approaches, pipeline corridors, or maneuver routes long enough to build a pattern-of-life and maintain contact on mobile targets. In a surveillance configuration, a 15 kg payload allowance is generous for an EO/IR turret plus recording and communications, and potentially room for mission kits such as lightweight EW sensing. In a loitering munition configuration, the same payload capacity can be traded for a warhead and fuzing, enabling the drone to loiter until a target meets engagement criteria, then commit to a terminal dive. The 100 km control radius suggests a primarily line-of-sight employment model, but it is sufficient for many border and littoral security missions when paired with forward teams or elevated relay points.

A country could employ Sarem as a find-fix-finish extender for brigades and border forces that do not have persistent air cover. The rapid deployment claim points to a concept where small detachments disperse with prepacked air vehicles, assemble quickly, and launch on cue to provide overwatch for convoys, patrol bases, or high-value site security. For conventional maneuver, the same system can support artillery and rocket units by spotting and maintaining target custody until clearance is granted, reducing the sensor-to-shooter timeline. For counter-air-defense and counter-radar tasks, loitering munitions are increasingly used as expendable pressure tools to force emitters to shut down, relocate, or reveal themselves to follow-on fires, although the effectiveness depends on seeker fit, datalink resilience, and electronic protection.

ASC did not publicly disclose confirmed operators for Sarem or the LY-150-derived family at the stand, and there is no widely documented open-source inventory attribution yet. That said, the timing and venue matter: WDS has become a hub for buyers seeking locally supported drone capabilities, and the appetite for loitering munitions is now global because their relatively low cost and ease of use allow mass employment, including saturation tactics that strain air defenses.

Against competitors, Sarem appears to sit between tactical backpack systems and larger operational loitering munitions. AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600, for example, advertises more than 40 minutes of endurance and over 40 km range with a munition weight of around 15 kg, optimized for man-portable anti-armor work. By contrast, ASC’s published 6-hour endurance and 22 kg take-off weight imply more persistence and payload flexibility, but likely with greater launch and support demands than a tube-launched system. On the higher end, IAI’s Harop is positioned as a long-range loitering munition with endurance up to 9 hours and a mature seeker-driven attack concept, setting a benchmark for operational depth that Sarem approaches in endurance class but not in documented combat pedigree or published reach. In the mid-range anti-armor segment, the HERO-120 class is typically marketed around a one-hour endurance with a multi-kilogram warhead and tens of kilometers range, which frames the kind of tactical niche Sarem could contest if configured with a comparable terminal effect.