Türkiye and Hungary join forces to develop Tolga counter-drone UGV for future warfare.

Türkiye and Hungary are moving to field a mobile robotic counter-drone defense system after Turkish defense company MKE signed an MoU with Hungary’s HT Division at SAHA 2026 in Istanbul to integrate the Tolga 20 mm counter-UAS weapon onto unmanned ground vehicles. The partnership matters because it combines low-cost drone interception, electronic warfare, and autonomous mobility into a deployable battlefield asset designed to protect maneuver forces and logistics nodes from the growing threat posed by FPV and tactical UAV attacks.

The Tolga system combines AESA radar, RF jamming, EO/IR tracking, and fragmentation-based gun systems into a layered architecture built to defeat mass drone attacks without relying on expensive missile interceptors. Mounted on HT Division’s Katica UGV family, the 20 mm revolver turret gives robotic formations a mobile SHORAD capability able to fire on the move, extend air defense coverage across dispersed front lines, and support the wider shift toward distributed autonomous warfare seen across Europe, Ukraine, and NATO modernization programs.

Related topic: How Türkiye’s MKE Is Expanding from Counter-Drone Systems to Full Defense Manufacturing

At SAHA 2026 in Istanbul, Turkish defense company MKE and Hungary’s HT Division signed an agreement to integrate the Tolga counter-drone system onto Katica unmanned ground vehicles for mobile short-range air defense missions against FPV drones. (Picture source: HT Division and Army Recognition)

At the SAHA 2026 exhibition in Istanbul, Turkish company MKE signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hungary's HT Division to integrate the Tolga short-range air defense system onto the HT Division's unmanned ground vehicles. The agreement specifically concerns the 20 mm Tolga Revolver Weapon System for mobile counter-UAS operations, with the first integrated configuration scheduled for demonstration during Eurosatory 2026 in June. MKE General Manager İlhami Keleş stated that procurement funding for Tolga had already been approved for the Turkish Land Forces, Air Force, and Naval Forces, while also identifying Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Hungary as active export markets.

The partnership links a Turkish counter-drone architecture optimized against low-cost UAVs with a Hungarian company developing modular unmanned ground vehicles inside the EU defense industrial environment. The Tolga is structured as a layered counter-UAS architecture rather than a standalone turret or single-caliber weapon station. The system combines the Gökbörü AESA radar family, RF jammer modules, EO/IR tracking systems, command-and-control nodes, and hard-kill weapon stations chambered in 35×228 mm, 20×102 mm, and 12.7×99 mm calibers.

The architecture prioritizes interception of Group 1 and Group 2 UAVs, including quadcopters, FPV drones, and tactical reconnaissance UAVs operating at short range and low altitude. The command structure can simultaneously track up to 100 targets while controlling three weapon stations in mobile deployments and six weapon stations in fixed-site configurations. Unlike conventional SHORAD systems centered on missile interceptors, the Tolga focuses on sustained engagement volume and low interception cost against inexpensive drones operating in high density. 

The radar component is built around the Gökbörü AESA family operating in the X-band through FMCW technology and configured through four-panel modular arrays providing 360° azimuth coverage and 60° elevation coverage. Each radar panel weighs 16 kg, refreshes target data at 2 Hz, and supports the detection of objects moving as slowly as 0.1 m/s. Detection ranges vary depending on target radar cross section, with DJI Phantom-class UAVs detectable between 2 km and 7 km, depending on radar configuration. Tactical UAVs carrying a 0.02 m² radar cross section are detectable between 2.38 km and 8.33 km, while F-16 fighter jets with a 5 m² radar cross section are detectable between 9.46 km and 33.1 km.

The architecture also incorporates AI-assisted target classification to distinguish UAV categories during day, night, and adverse weather conditions. The configuration selected for the HT Division integration centers on the 20 mm Tolga Revolver Weapon System, which uses a gas-operated revolver mechanism chambered in 20×102 mm NATO ammunition. The weapon operates with an adjustable firing rate between 1 and 1,500 rounds per minute while generating a muzzle velocity of 990 ±25 m/s, with a weapon mass of 118 kg excluding turret integration. The turret incorporates 360° azimuth rotation, elevation angles between −30° and +70°, servo-driven stabilization, EO/IR tracking systems, ballistic computation software, and remote-controlled firing capability.

The complete turret weight excluding ammunition remains below 650 kg, placing the system within the payload class of medium-sized unmanned ground vehicles. MKE also integrated radar and jammer connectivity directly into the turret architecture while supporting fire-on-the-move engagements against aerial targets. The Tolga engagement concept relies heavily on fragmentation ammunition designed specifically for counter-drone operations rather than armor penetration or conventional anti-aircraft direct-hit logic. The 20 mm fragmentation round incorporates a pyrotechnic delay fuze and disperses at least 20 high-velocity fragments after detonation, generating dense fragmentation clouds extending to roughly 1,000 m.

MKE also developed dedicated 12.7 mm fragmented ammunition compatible with both rotary and M2 QCB weapon configurations, while the 35 mm revolver weapon system occupies the outer engagement layer with an effective range of 4,000 m. This layered structure reflects battlefield observations from Ukraine and the Middle East, where low-cost UAVs frequently forced defenders into repeated missile launches or unsustainable ammunition expenditure against drones costing only a fraction of the interceptor. The Tolga concept instead attempts to increase the probability of kill through fragmentation density, high firing volume, and lower per-engagement cost. 

HT Division operates as a Hungarian defense technology company founded in 2018 with facilities located in Kaposvár and at the ZalaZone testing complex. The company’s Katica unmanned ground vehicle program includes wheeled, tracked, electric-drive, diesel-drive, and hybrid-drive variants intended for cargo transport, armed reconnaissance, close protection, perimeter security, and remote weapon integration. HT Division previously displayed the Mini-Katica tracked UGV carrying payloads including grenade launchers, Gatling-type systems, and lightweight remote weapon stations.

Prior cooperation with Turkish defense companies already included integration of Aselsan’s SARP 120/M remote weapon station onto Katica vehicles, including anti-tank missile launcher configurations. The current Tolga integration, therefore, extends an existing Turkish-Hungarian industrial relationship focused on modular unmanned combat systems and remotely operated weapon integration. Mounting SHORAD systems onto robotic ground vehicles addresses several operational constraints associated with fixed counter-UAS deployments by allowing radar, electronic warfare, and kinetic interception layers to move with maneuver units and logistics formations while reducing direct crew exposure.

UGV-mounted SHORAD systems can disperse across wider frontages, maintain radar coverage during movement, and defend ammunition depots, command posts, convoy routes, and temporary forward operating sites against short-range UAV incursions. However, the architecture still faces limitations linked to electrical power demand, thermal management during sustained firing, ammunition resupply rates, and the vulnerability of lightly armored robotic carriers to artillery fragments, FPV drones, and electronic warfare disruption. Similar operational concepts are increasingly visible in Russian anti-drone gun trucks, U.S mobile counter-UAS demonstrators, and European robotic SHORAD experiments combining radar surveillance, electronic warfare, and autonomous gun systems into distributed defensive networks.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.