ASELSAN unveils GOKALP counter-drone system, demonstrates mid-air interception of hostile UAV

TLDR

• Turkish defense firm ASELSAN demonstrated its GOKALP Counter-UAV Interception System at its Oğulbey Technology Base in Ankara, destroying a target drone in mid-air.¹²
• The AURA radar detected the target quadrotor and passed real-time tracking data to a GOKALP E1 interceptor drone through the DRONEDEF command-and-control system.¹
• GOKALP E1 destroyed the target using a direct hit-to-kill method, without an explosive warhead.²
• GOKALP is vehicle-integrated and mobile, and folds into DRONEDEF, ASELSAN's counter-drone layer within STEELDOME, Türkiye's wider layered air-defense architecture.¹²

ASELSAN demonstrated its GOKALP Counter-UAV Interception System on October 10, successfully detecting and destroying a hostile drone in mid-air during a test at the company's Oğulbey Technology Base in Ankara.¹² The system's AURA radar and electro-optical sensors detected the target drone and transmitted real-time tracking data to a GOKALP E1 interceptor drone through the command-and-control software of ASELSAN's DRONEDEF system.¹ The E1 interceptor then closed on the target and destroyed it using a direct-impact, hit-to-kill method rather than an explosive warhead.²

GOKALP is designed as a vehicle-integrated, mobile system: in its mobile configuration it uses two pickup vehicles, one carrying box launchers for GOKALP interceptor drones plus electro-optical/infrared sensors, and the other carrying a search radar for tracking UAV threats. ASELSAN also offers a towed single-unit configuration that adds four small AESA radars for 360-degree coverage without relying on a second vehicle. Two interceptor variants exist: the smaller E1 used in this test, aimed at quadcopters and hand-launched fixed-wing drones, and the larger E2, which carries front-mounted wings suggesting higher speed and altitude to intercept faster threats such as Shahed/Geran-type kamikaze drones. ASELSAN first unveiled GOKALP at SAHA EXPO 2026 before folding it into DRONEDEF, the counter-drone layer of STEELDOME, Türkiye's integrated layered air-defense architecture.¹²

Why it matters: cheap, hit-to-kill interceptor drones that destroy hostile UAVs without carrying an explosive warhead point to a lower-cost alternative to missile- or gun-based counter-drone defenses, and Türkiye folding GOKALP directly into its national STEELDOME air-defense network shows interceptor drones becoming a standard tier of layered air defense rather than a standalone product.