SARP: ASELSAN’s Stabilized Remote Weapon Station — Specs, Turkish Service and Exports Explained
SARP is ASELSAN’s family of stabilized remote weapon stations and the most widely fielded Turkish RCWS, with more than 3,000 units built by early 2021. Its baseline SARP 100/12.7 configuration mounts a 12.7 mm machine gun and equips Turkish Army, Gendarmerie and police vehicles, while export variants serve land and naval customers from Central Asia to the Gulf.
| Manufacturer | ASELSAN |
| Operators | Turkish Armed Forces, Gendarmerie, National Police; export customers |
| Program | ASELSAN product line integrated into multiple SSB vehicle programs |
| Production | More than 3,000 built by early 2021 |
| Local content | No official figure; design, optics and software are Turkish |
| Weapons | 7.62 mm, 12.7 mm machine guns or 40 mm grenade launcher |
What Is SARP?
SARP keeps the gunner under armor. From a console inside the vehicle, the operator observes day and night, detects and tracks targets and fires, with stabilization allowing accurate fire on the move against moving targets. ASELSAN lists automatic target tracking, automatic ballistic computation, laser ranging, round counting and definable no-fire and no-traverse zones among its functions.
Technical Specifications
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| 7.62 mm options | PMT 7.62, FN MAG58, M240, PKM |
| 12.7 mm options | PMT 12.7, M2HB, NSV, MT12-QCB |
| 40 mm option | MK19 Mod3 automatic grenade launcher |
| Elevation | -30° / +60° |
| Traverse | Continuous 360° |
| Weight | 212-330 kg without weapon and ammunition |
| Sensors | Day camera, thermal imager, laser rangefinder |
| Options | STANAG 4569 armor, wireless control, under-armor reloading, ATOM 40 ABM, smoke launchers |
The figures come from ASELSAN’s July 2025 SARP 100/12.7 data sheet; weight and height vary with armor and sensor choices. The ability to accept Western and Eastern-bloc machine guns alike has been an important factor in export campaigns.
Who Builds It and Program History
SARP is an ASELSAN design rather than a stand-alone SSB program; it is integrated as a subsystem on vehicles such as the Kirpi and Ejder Yalçın and on M60TM tank upgrades. ASELSAN reached 3,000 units in January 2021 after about ten years of continuous production. The family now includes SARP DUAL, the lightweight SARP-L, a wireless variant, the missile-armed SARP 100/12.7DM, the 14.5 mm SARP 100/14.5, the 25 mm SARP 100/25, and the new SARP 200 line with SEDA 100 acoustic shot detection, plus the 30 mm SARP 200/30 turret.
Turkish Service and Deliveries
SARP is used by the Turkish Armed Forces, the Gendarmerie General Command and the National Police. Published figures put more than 2,000 units in Turkish security service and total deliveries at 3,100 by the end of 2020. Current totals are not disclosed.
Exports
In April 2020 ASELSAN signed an RCWS contract with an unnamed NATO member, taking the number of countries for which it has designed and built remote weapon stations to 20. The same month it signed for SARP DUAL with Kazakhstan, and in May 2020 Bahrain ordered SARP for naval vessels, the system’s first shipborne application. SARP DUAL has also been seen with Turkmenistan’s State Border Service, and 2020 saw the first delivery to a European country. At DSA 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s MILDEF showed its Tarantula 4×4 fitted with SARP 100/12.7; no related contract has been disclosed.
Trade Show Appearances
SARP is a fixture of ASELSAN’s land systems display at IDEF in Istanbul. Abroad it was shown at Interpolitex 2015 in Moscow and on the Tarantula at DSA 2026, while the SARP 200 series and SARP 200/30 turret have been introduced at recent shows.
Local Content and Key Subsystems
No official local content figure is available. The turret design, electro-optics, stabilization and fire control software are ASELSAN’s, and the station can be paired with MKE’s PMT machine guns and ASELSAN’s ATOM 40 mm programmable rounds, allowing an all-Turkish weapon, ammunition and mount combination.
Global Counterparts
SARP competes with Kongsberg’s Protector, best known as the U.S. Army CROWS, Rafael’s Samson family, Elbit’s stations and EOS’s R400. Its selling points are a large fielded base, broad weapon compatibility and integration of smart 40 mm ammunition.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “100/12.7” mean?
It is ASELSAN’s designation for the 12.7 mm machine gun configuration of the SARP 100 series.
How many SARPs have been built?
More than 3,000 by January 2021, according to ASELSAN; newer totals are not published.
Who has bought SARP?
Publicly named customers include Kazakhstan and Bahrain, plus an unnamed NATO member and a European country.
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Featured photo: Vitaly V. Kuzmin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sources
- ASELSAN – SARP 100/12.7 ürün sayfası
- ASELSAN Konya – SARP 100 teknik özellikler
- C4Defence – SARP DUAL Kazakistan ihracatı
- Defense Mirror – SARP Bahreyn satışı
- Defense Mirror – NATO üyesi ülkeye SARP satışı
- Savunma Sanayi – SARP üretiminde 3000’e ulaşıldı
- TURDEF – MILDEF Tarantula üzerinde SARP 100/12.7
- TURDEF – SARP 200/30 kulesi
- Wikimedia Commons – Interpolitex 2015 SARP fotoğrafı
- Vikipedi – SARP (UKSS)
