Altınay X Motion Servo Drives: 350 W from a 12.6 cm3 Package, Explained

When a camera gimbal under a drone holds its crosshair on a moving target, or a remote weapon station swings its mount onto a new bearing in a fraction of a second, the component doing the fine work is rarely visible from outside. It is a servo drive: a small electronic unit that computes, thousands of times per second, how much current the motor should receive. X Motion is the servo drive family that Altınay Savunma, the Istanbul-based motion control specialist listed on Borsa Istanbul as ALTNY, developed for exactly this class of defence applications. Its headline figures are unusual for the category: 350 W of output from a package of 35 x 30 x 12 mm — 12.6 cubic centimetres — weighing 25 grams without its heatsink.

What a servo drive actually does

A servo motor on its own is just a motor. What turns it into a precision positioning device is the drive: the electronics that close the control loop between the commanded position and the measured one, reading an encoder or resolver, computing the error and modulating the current accordingly. In a defence platform this loop runs continuously while the vehicle vibrates, the temperature swings and the power bus fluctuates. If the drive falls behind, the turret overshoots, the gimbal image blurs and the guidance surface responds late.

That is why servo drives sit on most national critical-component lists. They are small, inexpensive relative to the platform, and almost impossible to substitute quickly when an export licence is withheld. Türkiye imported this class of component for years; X Motion is one of the products that emerged from the localization push of the last decade, developed by a company whose core business has been motion control since 2014 — see our Altınay Savunma profile for the broader story.

The X Motion design approach

Altınay describes X Motion as an ultra-compact, high-power-density servo drive family with an integrated motion controller and CANopen communication. The design goal, according to the manufacturer, was to put the full control loop — not just the power stage — inside a package small enough to sit directly inside a gimbal head or a turret ring, where every cubic centimetre and every gram competes with sensors and payload.

The family drives PMSM, BLDC and brushed DC motors, accepts feedback over SSI, incremental, Hall, resolver, BiSS and absolute encoder interfaces, and offers options such as an integrated EMI filter, an attachable heatsink and external NTC or PT100/PT1000 temperature probes. Supply is 18-36 VDC, matching the 28 V buses common on military vehicles and aircraft.

Technical specifications

The table below reproduces the manufacturer’s published figures for the X Motion family. They are catalogue values stated by Altınay Savunma; no independent test report is public.

Qualification: what MIL-STD-810G means here

Altınay lists five MIL-STD-810G test methods for X Motion: low pressure (500.5), high temperature (501.5), low temperature (502.5), vibration (514.6) and shock (516.6). Together with the stated operating envelope of -40 C to +60 C, 14.6 GRMS vibration, 30 g shock and 25,000 m altitude tolerance, this is the qualification profile expected of equipment mounted on aircraft, armoured vehicles and naval mounts. The 25,000 m figure in particular points at high-altitude unmanned aircraft, where low air pressure makes both cooling and insulation harder.

How it compares within its class

The defence market for miniature servo drives is dominated by a handful of Western suppliers. The table compares X Motion with three frequently referenced products on the two parameters that matter most inside a gimbal: power and volume. Competitor figures are approximate, compiled from public catalogue data; packaging and qualification scope differ between products, so this is an illustrative comparison, not a performance ranking.

Where it is used

Altınay’s product page lists five application areas for the family:

• Electro-optic systems — camera gimbals, lens control, stabilization and target-tracking modules
• Defence and aviation platforms — armed turret systems, stabilizers, guidance mechanisms
• Robotics and automation — compact robot arms, mini unmanned systems, industrial actuators
• Mobile platforms — unmanned ground and air vehicles, AGV/AMR systems
• Industrial systems — sensor pointing units, positioning systems, small traction and propulsion drives

Within the Turkish ecosystem, Altınay has a long record as a drive-system supplier to prime contractors — the company’s history includes the drive systems of ASELSAN’s Ertuğrul and Kaplan bomb-disposal robots — and its own products, from the telescopic masts to the Kuşkapanı helicopter-handling system, are built on the same motion-control foundation. A full overview of the company’s programme involvement is in our projects file.

The localization and export dimension

Components like X Motion rarely appear in export statistics under their own name. They travel inside the platforms that integrate them, so their international footprint grows with the export of Turkish unmanned aircraft, armoured vehicles and naval systems rather than through direct component sales — a pattern we examined in Altınay’s export file.

For Türkiye the strategic value is supply security: a gimbal or turret whose servo drive is produced domestically is not exposed to a foreign supplier’s export-licence decisions for that part. Altınay, which reported revenue above 3.1 billion lira for 2025 (see the financial results file), positions X Motion precisely in that critical-component niche: small in unit value, large in dependency terms.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Altınay X Motion?

X Motion is a family of ultra-compact servo drives developed by the Turkish company Altınay Savunma for defence and industrial motion control. It combines a power stage, a motion controller and CANopen communication in a 35 x 30 x 12 mm package delivering up to 350 W.

How small is the X Motion servo drive?

The drive measures 35 x 30 x 12 mm — a volume of 12.6 cubic centimetres — and weighs 25 grams without its optional heatsink, according to the manufacturer’s published specifications.

Which motors can X Motion control?

The family supports permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSM), brushless DC motors (BLDC) and brushed DC motors, with feedback over SSI, incremental, Hall, resolver, BiSS and absolute encoder interfaces.

Is X Motion qualified to military standards?

Altınay lists MIL-STD-810G environmental test methods for low pressure, high and low temperature, vibration and shock, with an operating range of -40 C to +60 C, 14.6 GRMS vibration endurance and 25,000 m altitude tolerance. These are manufacturer statements; no independent test report has been published.

Where is X Motion used?

Stated application areas include electro-optic gimbals, armed turret systems, guidance mechanisms, unmanned ground and air vehicles, robot arms and industrial positioning systems. Specific platform integrations are generally not disclosed by name.

How does X Motion compare with Elmo or Copley drives?

On approximate catalogue figures, X Motion offers comparable power (350 W vs ~360-400 W) from roughly half the volume of the Elmo Gold Twitter and about a quarter of the Copley Argus. Packaging and qualification scope differ, so the comparison is indicative rather than a ranking.

Can X Motion be exported?

As a defence component it is subject to Turkish export-control rules, and no stand-alone export contract has been announced. In practice components of this type reach foreign users mainly inside exported Turkish platforms.

Who makes X Motion?

Altınay Savunma Teknolojileri, founded in 2014 within the Altınay Technology Group, headquartered at Teknopark Istanbul and listed on Borsa Istanbul under the ticker ALTNY. Motion control is the company’s founding competence.

Sources

• Altınay Savunma official product page — Servo Drives / X Motion (altinaysavunma.com)
• Altınay Savunma corporate and investor relations pages (altinaysavunma.com)
• Public catalogue data of Elmo Motion Control, Copley Controls and Maxon (manufacturer websites)
• Envanter Medya Altınay archive

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