Saudi Arabia Fields New Indigenous Karayel Armed Drone System with Shalfa Strike Weapon.

Saudi Arabia showcased a locally produced precision-guided weapon integrated onto a co-produced Turkish tactical UAV at the World Defense Show near Riyadh on February 9, 2026. The pairing highlights the Kingdom’s push toward a sovereign, end-to-end strike capability that reduces reliance on foreign munitions while retaining NATO-aligned airframe standards.

At the World Defense Show near Riyadh on February 9, 2026, the Army Recognition team walked the Intra Defense Technologies display line and found a clear signal of where Saudi strike capability is heading next: a locally driven precision munition program paired with a Saudi-co-produced Turkish tactical UAV. Intra’s Shalfa lightweight guided weapon, shown as an air-launched load option alongside the Karayel-SU, was not presented as a standalone product but as a deliberate building block in a sovereign kill chain, one designed to keep targeting, integration, and production authority inside the Kingdom while still leveraging a proven foreign airframe pedigree.
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Intra's Shalfa is a lightweight precision munition for tactical UAVs, using INS/GNSS guidance with terminal laser homing to strike armored and point targets from standoff range in powered or glide variants (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

Karayel-SU is the armed, extended-wing member of the Karayel family now marketed by Lentatek, a platform designed to NATO STANAG 4671 airworthiness standards and built around a triple-redundant distributed avionics architecture for flight safety and reliability. In its current configuration, the system offers up to 20 hours of endurance with payload, an operating altitude of approximately 22,500 feet, and a line-of-sight control range extending to around 200 kilometers. The aircraft’s payload concept is what makes it particularly relevant to Middle Eastern operators: a 70-kilogram center-of-gravity payload bay combined with up to 120 kilograms distributed under the wings, with individual hardpoints rated to 30 kilograms, enabling mixed carriage of sensors, communications systems, and munitions. The Karayel-SU is equipped with day-night electro-optical and infrared sensors with laser designation capability, enabling autonomous target detection, tracking, and engagement. Recent configurations have also demonstrated synthetic aperture radar integration and a growth path toward SATCOM, expanding operational reach beyond pure line-of-sight missions.

The armament observed at WDS is best understood through the Shalfa program itself. Intra’s Shalfa is a compact air-launched precision weapon family developed specifically for tactical UAV payload classes rather than heavy UCAVs. The powered variant is a lightweight guided munition weighing under 14 kilograms, approximately 1.2 meters long, and using a combination of inertial navigation, satellite guidance, and semi-active laser homing in the terminal phase. Its effective engagement envelope spans several kilometers, optimized for anti-armor and precision strike roles. A second unpowered glide variant features a larger warhead and similar guidance architecture, optimized for top-attack profiles and low-signature engagements. At WDS 2026, Intra officials highlighted the munition’s ability to switch guidance modes depending on the electromagnetic environment, as well as a multipurpose warhead claimed to penetrate up to 700 millimeters of rolled homogeneous armor. The company has confirmed that the majority of Shalfa’s manufacturing content is being localized in Saudi Arabia in cooperation with national defense industrial entities.

From a programmatic perspective, Karayel-SU represents a clear evolution from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance toward a fully integrated strike platform. The armed variant emerged from an extended-wing design optimized for endurance and payload growth, with weaponization planned early in its development cycle. Saudi Arabia’s decision to move from customer to producer marked a strategic inflection point, with local companies beginning licensed production under technology transfer arrangements. In parallel, Intra’s Shalfa development followed an iterative, customer-informed design process, progressing from concept to captive-carry and firing trials as part of the Kingdom’s broader push for defense industrial sovereignty.

The Karayel-SU combined with Shalfa provides a complete find-fix-finish capability without the cost, infrastructure, or political footprint of larger MALE or HALE systems. The UAV’s endurance supports persistent border surveillance, convoy overwatch, and maritime or desert route monitoring, while its sensor suite enables rapid transition from detection to engagement. The powered Shalfa variant allows operators to maintain standoff distance against point defenses and small-arms threats, while the glide version supports discreet engagements where collateral damage and acoustic signature must be minimized. Intra’s parallel work on electronic support and counter-jamming technologies reflects an operational concept focused on survivability in contested electromagnetic environments, ensuring continuity of the strike chain even under GPS denial or active jamming.

In service, Karayel-SU is currently operated by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, with Saudi use closely tied to domestic production and force-wide integration. For potential export customers, the system’s appeal lies not only in its performance but in its industrial model: licensed assembly of a NATO-aligned tactical UAV paired with a domestically produced precision munition family. This approach enables national stockpiles, sovereign mission data control, and local upgrade authority. Compared with competing systems in the same class that rely heavily on externally sourced munitions, the Karayel-SU and Shalfa combination positions itself as a self-contained national strike ecosystem, optimized for tactical persistence, runway-based operations, and scalable local manufacturing rather than sheer payload mass.