Czech Mars 4×4 gets twin machine guns for drone defense

Czech air defense troops have test-fired a remotely operated twin machine gun mounted on SVOS’s Mars 4x4 armored vehicle against small drones, as Czech industry offers the vehicle as a cheaper counter-drone option alongside the missile-armed version the Army of the Czech Republic has already ordered. Soldiers from the 25th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment in Strakonice ran the trials at the Boletice military training area in southern Bohemia, using small, low-cost drones as targets. They first checked how well the electro-optical sensors on the Gladius Twin weapon station could detect and track the drones, and then fired live rounds at them.

SVOS, which builds the Mars 4x4 in Přelouč, developed the configuration with EVPÚ Defence, the maker of the Gladius Twin, which carries two 7.62 mm machine guns and is mounted on the Mars 4x4 S-330 Hard Top variant. The companies did not say when the trials took place, how many drones were flown, at what ranges they were engaged or how many were hit.

The firing tests were meant to check in practice the conclusions of a Czech Ministry of Defence study on fitting the Gladius Twin to the Mars 4x4, which the state-owned Military Technical Institute and its aviation branch prepared for the army. According to the announcement, the trials showed that the weapon station worked effectively within the range of its ammunition and sensors, that it is suitable for integration on the Mars 4x4 for close-in air defense as part of force protection, and that cooperation with domestic industry pays off for the army.

The machine gun version is the second air defense configuration SVOS has shown on the Mars 4x4, following the vehicle armed with Saab’s RBS 70 NG laser-guided missiles. In July 2025, the Czech Ministry of Defence signed a contract worth about SEK 1.86 billion (about $195 million) with Saab for 24 Mars 4x4 vehicles carrying RBS 70 NG launchers, with SVOS as a subcontractor, plus eight tripod-mounted launchers and 80 missiles.

Those vehicles are due to reach three batteries of the same 25th regiment between 2028 and 2030, replacing a mix of older RBS 70 and RBS 70 NG launchers that the unit currently operates in dismounted form, with crews exposed while firing. Photo by 25th Air Defence Regiment Machine guns guided by a stabilized electro-optical sight give a much cheaper way to deal with small drones at short range than missiles, which can cost far more than the drones they shoot down. A weapon station like the Gladius Twin can also cover the final few hundred meters around a unit or base, where small reconnaissance and attack drones are most dangerous to troops on the ground.

SVOS says the Mars 4x4 already forms the basis of the Czech mobile short-range air defense system and has the technical features needed to carry other weapon systems.