ANKARA, Turkey \u2014 For decades, Turkey was simply the buyer and market for foreign-made weapons systems and manufacturers. In the last decade or so, however, it rose to being the buyer, producer, co-producer and partner of countless systems that it used to purchase off the shelf.\u00a0
Progress has been substantial. In 2002, Turkey’s local industry met 24 percent of the country’s procurement requirements. That ratio is now at an impressive 64 percent, although experts disagree over how this number can be objectively calculated in a complex industrial system where local and imported subsystems can easily get mixed up.
The rationale for such self sufficiency is as much pragmatic as it is ambitious, as Turkey’s requests for certain military systems from allies have been met by delays or refusal. Demir pointed to a recent incident of a U.S. manufacturer denied a request to sell gun towers to Turkey, citing political deliberations. “Such restrictions cause delays in our procurement programs,” said Demir, who in the past pointed to delays in requests for armed drones from the U.S. as spurring domestic development.\u00a0“But in this particular case, we shall be able to produce that system locally in a span of six months.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last 10 years or so, Turkey set out to design, develop and produce a lengthy number of indigenous systems, from corvettes and frigates, to missiles, a new-generation main battle tank,\u00a0drones, fighter and trainer aircraft, and fleets of armored vehicles of different types.
Some of these programs have matured, some progressed slowly, some have faced technical snags, some have encountered costing programs and some have faced major delays. But all programs have remained active and moving\u00a0\u2014\u00a0slow or fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I believe the progress of Turkish defense sector shall become more apparent once more of these products shall be available for the export market,” said Faik Eken, CEO of military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey’s largest defense company.\u00a0Aselsan exports to more than 60 countries, and its annual sales are more than $1.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The local industry is already quite self-sufficient in land systems, and efforts to develop an indigenous tank provide the opportunity to “complete the picture,”\u00a0in the words of Turgut Senol, CEO for RBSS,\u00a0an armored vehicles venture between Turkey’s BMC, Germany’s Rheinmetall and Malaysia’s Etika.\u00a0
Progess is being made in other markets as well. In 2016 alone,\u00a0state-controlled missile maker Roketsan qualified four products. In the next seven years, the company plans to move on from missile and rocket systems with a height of 2 meters to those with 7 or 8 meters, said\u00a0Selcuk Yasar, Roketsan general manager.\u00a0The Hurkus, a basic trainer aircraft developed by Tusas Turkish Aerospace Industries, was recently equipped with L-UMTAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a laser-guided, long-range, anti-tank missile developed by Roketsan\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and was showcased at a firing test field in central Turkey.
It’s a notable success for Otokar, the maker of the prototypes of what will become the first indigenous Turkish main battle tank, the Altay. In 2016, Otokar submitted its best and final offer for the serial production contract under the Altay program, which involves an eventual production of 1,000 units. The Ankara government will decide this year whether to accept it or launch a competition.\u00a0
Hurdle to self-suffiency<\/b>
RBSS’ Senol said that there are efforts to develop a local engine to power aerial, land and naval systems in the future. But he concedes the lack of engine technology, and failed development attempts, is a problem for local industry.\u00a0
Now Turkish bureaucracy and industry are mulling Ukrainian know-how for research and development activity, which they hope will eventually build a “national” Turkish engine for the Altay.\u00a0
The country is aiming to achieve near-full self-sufficiency in line with its regional and global ambitions for more political clout. But some of its indigenous programs may prove overly ambitious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,46,11,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3466],"class_list":["post-41383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-europe","category-global","category-land"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ZVQPQDU3JJDHFIB6ZULNX6T6MQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/land\/2017\/04\/24\/going-it-alone-turkey-staunch-in-efforts-for-self-sufficient-defense-capabilities\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n