President of the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industry Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir said, “You have to be unstoppable in the operational environment. Your communication must be unbreakable. You need to be able to pinpoint the achievement of adversarial goals. We are doing all kinds of technological work for them," he said.
President of the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industry Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir, as a guest of the TRT Haber live broadcast, shared the latest stages in defense industry projects.
“There was no disruption in the projects”
Stating that they spent the pandemic period in the defense industry within the framework of the slogan 'No Stopping, Continue on the Road', Demir said, “There was not much disruption in our projects. As you can see, we are constantly making deliveries in our projects. We have a long way to go, we have to run. We have a lot of work to do. We have to constantly look to the future to do better than what we have done. Rather than saying 'We did very well', it would be better for us to say 'We will do better than this'.
President of Defense Industry Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir gave the following information about the latest projects carried out: “Our country did not have its own domestic and national air defense system 3 years ago. Air defense is a cascade system. We made deliveries together with SUNGUR, HİSAR A+ and HİSAR O+, which have been commissioned recently. We are about to commission the land-to-land version of ATMACA now. Our torpedo work continues. Electronic warfare has recently been a very important element of the operational field. We started to deliver very important products to the field in the field of electronic warfare. We call it unmanned systems. This includes land and sea vehicles. In this sense, various prototypes are being developed. Some of them are in the trial phase and some are in the inventory phase. For example, we change some of our products. We turned our ŞİMŞEK target drone into a cruise missile. We both increased and diversified the range of the ammunition in our UAVs and SİHAs.”
“The road to SİPER”
Referring to the studies on air defense systems, Demir said, “There are air defense products to meet various threats. We currently have a containment envelope of HİSAR A+ and HİSAR O+ up to approximately 20 km, but we will create a containment envelope of around 70 and 100 km on the road to SİPER. After that, we will rise above him in SİPER. We are slowly moving towards a system with the S-400 scale. In 5 years, we will go through these levels by filling them.”
“We have a mobilization for the engine”
Demir said that there were 65 projects in the defense industry before, and today there are more than 70 projects with a budget exceeding 750 billion dollars. Demir said that AKINCI TİHA, which has just joined the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces, will continue to develop and will be equipped with various engines and ammunition.
Stating that engine development in the defense industry covers a long process, Demir said, “Our tank engine is currently in testing. Our UAV engines started to be used. The first prototypes of our helicopter engine are out. We have a mobilization on the engine,” he said.
“We are trying to activate HORM IDAs”
Stating that they have studies on unmanned systems on land, sea and air, Demir said, “We have unmanned sea vehicles on surface and underwater. There are studies of unmanned ground vehicles. There are studies in light, medium and heavy classes. Prototypes are currently being raced for both autonomous and remotely controlled vehicles. There are those that are used in the field and those that are integrated with various weapons. We are trying to activate the flocks of unmanned sea vehicles. Experiments continue. Our project continues for UAVs to be deployed on naval platforms and work in aircraft carrier format.”
Making evaluations about the National Combat Aircraft (MMU) Project, Demir said, "We have entered a very ambitious 5th Generation project like the MMU." When asked about joint aircraft production with Russia, Demir said, “We talk to anyone who wants to cooperate on our terms. We will not wait for any country. We're on our way now. Our design process continues, we even started the production of some parts. As a partnership, we told them that our door is open to those who want to be a partner in this program from friendly and allied countries.”
“IDEF needs to trigger export”
Demir also made the following evaluations about the 15th International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF21): “IDEF went very well. I interviewed about 40-odd delegates. They all said, 'Here we see where Turkey came from.' This is a showcase. In the operations, the performance of the Turkish defense industry products provided a certain awareness, this is very important. Seeing various products there was the best proof that Turkey is now moving towards becoming a global power. This was expressed many times by the delegations. This should trigger exports.
“You have to be unstoppable in the operational environment”
Referring to electronic warfare systems, Demir continued as follows: “There is an escape and chase in electronic warfare. We used our SİHAs, but our opponents had certain data about the capabilities and usage patterns of our SİHAs. If we stay here, we'll be caught. How can we use a SİHA that will do more advanced tasks, how can we continue our communication in the electronic environment uninterruptedly, how can we find our position in an environment where there is no GPS system? We are trying to implement these technologies. We consider all of these. Because you can't stop here. You have to be unstoppable in the operational environment. Your communication must be unbreakable. You need to be able to pinpoint the achievement of adversarial goals. We are doing all kinds of technological studies possible.”
“I am looking forward to MMU”
“What projects are you looking forward to?” On the question, Demir said, “I am eagerly awaiting the National Combat Aircraft. I am also looking forward to our unmanned jet fighter aircraft and our rocket to go into space," he said.
“If something is man-made, we do better”
Giving messages for the youth, Demir continued: “Young people caught the defense industry move. I use two slogans. The first is this: If something is man-made, we do better. Second, our dreams will be big, but we will not be dreamers. Having big dreams means looking into long horizons. You can't go there by whistling. In order to do what is necessary and reach the goal, manpower, brain power, preliminary work, sweating, reproaching, and a number of factors must be in place. Most importantly, we need to take every precaution to pave the way for our youth.”
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