At the Partner 2025 defence fair in Belgrade, Serbia showcased a new electric VTOL unmanned aircraft system named Senka. The compact UAS is pitched as a day/night reconnaissance, surveillance and light-attack asset. It performs vertical take-off and landing, removing the need for runways, and carries two 60 mm guided glide kits for precision effects against light targets.
Senka is offered as a modular kit—air vehicles, a ground control station, weapons, transport fixtures and support tools all form part of the package. Electric propulsion reduces acoustic and thermal signatures and simplifies field maintenance; an EO/IR gimbal in the nose provides multi-spectral sensing. The VTOL layout allows rapid deployment and recovery from confined sites, suiting units that operate from dispersed or improvised locations.
Key specs place Senka in the light-tactical class: 5 m wingspan, 40 kg maximum take-off weight and an 8 kg payload. Reported operating altitude ranges between 1,000–2,000 m, cruise speed around 80–100 km/h, endurance in excess of three hours and an operational radius beyond 50 km—parameters intended for brigade- or battalion-level tasking rather than deep-strike missions.
Armament consists of two 60 mm guided kits. Serbian industry has experience adapting mortar rounds with glide tails and simple seekers, and Senka appears to follow that approach—offering small precision effects against light vehicles, crew-served weapons or fixed positions. With an 8 kg payload, carrying two small glide kits alongside the sensor suite is plausible. Autonomous navigation likely enables pre-planned routing and hold patterns, while a human-in-the-loop authorises weapons release.
Tactically, Senka is designed for short-range precision, reconnaissance and battle-damage assessment in contested littoral or inland environments. Its quiet electric drive makes cueing defenders harder until the weapon is already inbound, while VTOL recovery supports high sortie rates without runway infrastructure.
In strategic terms, Senka fits Serbia’s push to build a domestic drone ecosystem and to offer affordable, tactically useful UAS for export customers seeking simple precision at the tactical edge.
