A gun-carrying Asisguard Songar drone in flight.
New Delhi: India has officially accused Pakistan of deploying Turkish-manufactured Asisguard Songar drones to target both civilian and military installations across the India-Pakistan border. According to a Ministry of Defence statement on Friday, these sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were part of a coordinated attack involving hundreds of drones across 36 different locations stretching the entire western border from Leh in Ladakh to Sir Creek in Gujarat.
During a media briefing, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian Air Force revealed that examination of recovered drone debris confirmed their Turkish origin. She stated that approximately 300 to 400 drones were involved in what appears to have been a large-scale operation potentially designed to test India’s air-defence capabilities and gather intelligence.
What’s Turkey’s Asisguard Songar drone?
The Songar drone represents advanced UAV technology developed by Asisguard, an Ankara-based Turkish company. This quadrotor platform features:
* Dual operation capabilities: both autonomous and manual flight modes
* Advanced autonomous functions including route planning, flight execution, and return-to-base protocols
* Safety mechanisms that trigger automatic return in critical scenarios (low battery, lost data link)
* Simultaneous transmission of telemetry data and imagery
* Complete system package including the drone, ground-control station, and support equipment
The system made its public debut at Istanbul’s International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF) in 2019 and entered service with Turkish armed forces in 2020, establishing itself as a sophisticated addition to modern drone warfare technology.
As India Sentinels reported earlier, one of the most concerning aspects of the attack was an attempt to target the Bathinda Military Station with an armed UAV, though Indian forces successfully detected and neutralized the threat. In response, India launched counterstrikes against four Pakistani air-defence sites, with one drone successfully destroying an air defence radar.
The Songar drone system offers significant military capabilities, including:
* Operational radius of up to 5 kilometres with real-time video transmission
* Dual functionality with both daylight and infrared cameras
* Ability to carry and fire six 170-millimetre mini-missiles
* Optional automatic machine gun capability with 200 rounds of Nato ammunition
* Operational ceiling of 2,800 metres
* 44-kilogram take-off weight with 9-kilogram payload capacity
This incident marks a major escalation in the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s subsequent Operation Sindoor against terror infrastructure deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir. As India Sentinels had reported on Thursday, one of those strikes killed the terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammed leader Masood Azhar’s 10 family members, including his brother Rauf, who was a top terrorist.
