ROKETSAN officially unveiled the NEŞTER, a kinetic kill variant with blades for the widespread MAM-L laser-guided munition, during SAHA EXPO 2026.
ROKETSAN’s NEŞTER (Scalpel in Turkish) variant of MAM-L brings a specialised munition to neutralise key targets without collateral damage, especially in highly populated areas.
The munition deploys six blades stowed along the fuselage in place of the warhead, which focuses the terminal kinetic energy on the desired target. The blades are deployed depending on the feedback from an optical sensor array located below the laser seeker aperture.
Thanks to sharing the same exterior and layout with MAM-L, the NEŞTER can be used by any platform certified for MAM-L, mainly UCAVs.
The need for a munition like NEŞTER stems from the counter-terrorism operations often involving strikes on singular high-value targets. If the target is in a densely populated area, the fragmentation effect is likely to cause secondary damage even with a smaller warhead, limiting the windows for strikes. However, a munition like NEŞTER bypasses this risk factor by having the striking platform send a stack of blades on the target instead of explosive payload, in practical term.
Thus, it can be said that NEŞTER will be a sboutique variant in the MAM line with limited production for special operations.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor: Özgür Ekşi
