GDELS integrates Slovenian turret into ASCOD combat vehicle

A tracked combat vehicle built to survive the modern battlefield got a new weapon fitted for exactly the kind of threat that battlefield increasingly features: drones. Valhalla Turrets, a Slovenian defense company, announced that its MANGART 30 remote-controlled turret has been integrated onto an ASCOD infantry fighting vehicle demonstrator, presented jointly by General Dynamics European Land Systems and Santa Bárbara Sistemas at FIDMA 2026, an international trade fair held in Gijón, Spain.

A remote-controlled turret lets a crew member operate the vehicle’s main weapon from inside the protected hull using cameras and sensors rather than exposing themselves in an open hatch, a design that has become standard on modern armored vehicles precisely because it keeps soldiers shielded from small arms fire, shrapnel, and drone strikes while still letting them engage targets.

The demonstrator vehicle, identified by both Valhalla Turrets and independent observers at the show as the ASCOD 42, is fitted with composite rubber tracks rather than traditional steel tracks, a lighter alternative material that reduces noise, vibration, and wear on paved roads while still providing the traction tracked vehicles need across rough terrain. General Dynamics European Land Systems displayed the prototype in cooperation with the Asturias Military Museum. The ASCOD 42 is built on the broader ASCOD platform, a tracked infantry fighting vehicle family that General Dynamics European Land Systems has supplied to multiple European militaries, including Spain, where a version called the Pizarro has served the Spanish Army for years, and the United Kingdom, which uses a heavily modified ASCOD variant for its Ajax reconnaissance vehicle program.

Spanish media covering the FIDMA event reported that the specific pairing shown in Gijón reflects an effort by General Dynamics European Land Systems to position the ASCOD platform for a potential future order from Slovenia, whose armed forces have favored wheeled vehicles almost exclusively in recent years and canceled a planned purchase of Finnish-made Patria wheeled vehicles in late 2025, leaving an opening for a tracked alternative that no official Slovenian procurement announcement has yet confirmed.

Valhalla Turrets built its reputation designing weapon systems specifically for that kind of layered threat environment rather than treating drones as an afterthought bolted onto an existing gun mount. Founded in 2019 and based in Komenda, Slovenia, the company has focused heavily on counter-drone and air defense capability across its turret lineup, an area of growing demand as European militaries watch how cheap, mass-produced drones have reshaped ground combat in Ukraine. The company first unveiled the MANGART 30 publicly in May 2025 during Slovenian Armed Forces Day celebrations in Koper, introducing it as a companion system to the earlier MANGART 25, which carries a 25×137 millimeter automatic cannon and pairs an active electronically scanned array radar with an electro-optical and infrared sensor suite, letting it detect and track drones, helicopters, low-flying aircraft, and ground targets out to roughly 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) in any weather condition, day or night.

Beyond the MANGART 30 turret itself, the ASCOD 42 demonstrator also carries a new commander’s sight from French optronics company Safran, called the PASEO Master, part of a long-running family of panoramic sighting systems Safran has sold more than 2,500 units of worldwide for infantry fighting vehicles, main battle tanks, and joint fires applications. The PASEO family gives a vehicle commander a 360-degree, day-and-night view around the vehicle using all-weather optronic sensors, letting the crew spot and track targets independently of where the gunner’s own sight happens to be pointed, a capability the same PASEO line already provides on vehicles ranging from Australia’s Redback infantry fighting vehicle to the U.S. Army’s new Mobile Protected Firepower vehicle.

That sensor-heavy approach carried directly into the MANGART 30’s design, which Valhalla Turrets says was built around an open architecture specifically so militaries can swap in different weapons, sensors, and mission equipment as battlefield requirements evolve rather than locking a customer into a fixed configuration for the turret’s entire service life.

“Designed around an open architecture, MANGART 30 enables the integration of different effectors, sensors and mission equipment while providing the flexibility required for evolving battlefield requirements, including C-UAS capabilities,” Valhalla Turrets said.

Counter-unmanned aircraft systems capability, commonly shortened to C-UAS, has become one of the most sought-after features across European turret and air defense programs over the past two years, driven directly by lessons from Ukraine’s war against Russia, where inexpensive first-person-view drones and larger loitering munitions have repeatedly destroyed armored vehicles that had no effective way to detect or engage a small aerial threat before it struck. A remote turret that can track and shoot down a drone gives an infantry fighting vehicle a self-defense capability that traditional tank and IFV armament, built around engaging other ground vehicles and infantry, was never originally designed to provide, making systems like the MANGART 30 increasingly relevant to militaries reassessing what their existing armored fleets can actually survive against on a contemporary battlefield.

MANGART 25 AD turret integrated on a Patria 8×8. Photo by VALHALLA TURRETS

Valhalla Turrets has already tested that broader concept on a different vehicle platform earlier this year, demonstrating the MANGART 25 mounted on a Pandur 6×6 wheeled armored personnel carrier during live-fire trials conducted in Slovenia in May 2026, working alongside General Dynamics European Land Systems-Steyr and the Slovenian Armed Forces. That earlier demonstration focused on proving the turret’s stability and firing precision under demanding terrain and environmental stress, results the company says validated the system’s reliability under sustained operational conditions rather than just controlled test-range settings. Pairing the larger MANGART 30 with the tracked ASCOD platform at FIDMA extends that same validation effort onto a heavier, more survivable vehicle class, giving General Dynamics European Land Systems a combined package it can pitch to militaries evaluating both wheeled and tracked options depending on their specific terrain and mission requirements.

Valhalla Turrets framed the ASCOD pairing as evidence of a broader shift in how European defense companies are approaching new combat vehicle programs, prioritizing the ability to mix and match turrets, hulls, and mission equipment from different manufacturers rather than building everything in-house under one company’s proprietary design.

“The integration of MANGART 30 with ASCOD 42 demonstrates the importance of interoperability, modularity and adaptability in the development of modern land combat systems,” Valhalla Turrets said.