President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the “Next Generation Storm Howitzer Delivery Ceremony” held at the BMC Operation at the Arifiye Campus of the Ministry of National Defense. Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar attended the ceremony with Chief of General Staff General Yaşar Güler, Land Forces Commander General Musa Avsever, Naval Forces Commander Admiral Ercüment Tatlıoğlu, Air Forces Commander General Atilla Gülan and Deputy Minister Muhsin Dere.
In his speech, President Erdoğan wished 6 new generation Storm howitzers to be delivered to the nation and the army.
“We will increase this number to 140 in total with new deliveries in the coming period.” President Erdogan said:
“The next generation Storm howitzers have many advantages over models currently in inventory. As a result of the studies carried out, both the survivability and firepower of our howitzers have been increased. Among the added capabilities, there are many critical elements such as new generation fire control, automatic ammunition loading, driver's vision, automatic fire extinguishing, air conditioning, remote control weapon, renewed track suspension equipment, new generation auxiliary power group. With all these systems that strengthen the power of our storm howitzers, we also reduce our dependence on foreign sources. I hope we will complete the localization activities that we have been carrying out for a while in the field of engine and transmission within two years.”
Expressing that the engine and transmission developed by BMC Power will be used in Storm howitzers as of 2025, President Erdoğan emphasized that they will radically resolve the license issue that occasionally arises in the export of defense products.
President Erdoğan, who thanked those who took part in the execution of this project, which improves the deterrence and mobility of the Turkish Armed Forces, said, “I congratulate our engineers, technicians and workers who manufacture the howitzers, and congratulate them for their success. We continue our work by extending the momentum we have gained here to other strategic projects carried out in our factory, especially the Altay tank. In May, we are delivering 2 new Altay tanks to our army and the company that will make the power group to perform their tests. Hopefully, after completing the tests of the new Altays, we will start mass production together with our project partners from 2025.” used his statements.
President Erdoğan said, “In addition to our storm howitzers and Altay tanks, the production and export of Altuğ 8×8 armored personnel carriers at our Arifiye facility, the modernization of Leopard 2A4 tanks in the inventory of our Turkish Armed Forces, the project, integration and production studies of different engines and transmissions from 400 to 1500 hp. continues." he said.
Someone said, “It was sold to him, to this.” Stating that the Arifiye Main Maintenance Factory, which was the target of slanders, continues to meet the needs of the army in different fields, President Erdoğan continued as follows:
“'He will be fired.' Our factory personnel, whom they want to stir up, are working, producing and contributing to our country's economy with complete peace of mind without losing any rights. And yet, those who do not hold any claims regarding the factory have never had the virtue of apologizing, even half-heartedly, from our fellow workers here, from our operators, or from our nation.”
President Erdoğan stated that they will not stop, rest and consent to the slightest setback until they declare full independence in the field of defense industry, and that they will make Turkey run from success to success with the cooperation of the public and private sectors.
Underlining that the defense industry is one of the areas where Turkey has broken its chains, President Erdoğan stated that when he took office, 20 percent of the production in the defense industry was national, and today this rate has reached 80 percent.
President Erdoğan pointed out that they have achieved unimaginable successes in this field in the last 20 years with main contractors, SMEs, research institutions and technology centers.
Stating that they did not only write a success story in the defense industry, but also realized a great mentality revolution, President Erdoğan stated that many projects that had been initiated before in Turkey had been interrupted and that the success of the projects in the last 20 years had been proven.
THE NUMBER OF COMPANIES OPERATING IN THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY EXCEEDED 2
Emphasizing that they have turned many critical projects, which were described as "unfeasible" and "imaginary", into reality, President Erdoğan said:
“Of course, we did not reach this level at a time like that. Since the first day of our Prime Ministry, we have embraced and supported all the works carried out in order to strengthen our country and to break its dependence on foreign sources in the defense industry. Instead of buying ready-made products from others, we tried to develop our own defense sector with different methods and methods, including joint production. Despite being subjected to many resistances, sabotage and betrayals, we never turned back from this road. Thankfully, we have come to these days where we are proud of the tangible results we have achieved.
We have personally experienced the benefit of this change in mentality in the processes of meeting our defense needs in many topics in a short time. For example, while only 2002 companies were operating in the defense industry sector in 56, this number has exceeded 2 thousand today. The number of projects, which was 62, exceeded 750. While defense projects with a total budget of 5,5 billion dollars were carried out, today this figure has exceeded 60 billion dollars. When we include the projects that are in the tender process, our budget size reaches 75 billion dollars. We have reached the days when we saw the annual budget allocated to research and development in the defense industry increase from $ 49 million to $ 1,5 billion. Thank God."
Expressing that they witnessed a proud picture especially in the field of exports, President Erdoğan said:
“Do you know what happened to our defense exports, which was only 20 million dollars 248 years ago? We broke a record with 4 billion 400 million dollars. While there were 5 companies in the list of the world's top 6 defense companies 100-2 years ago, today we are represented by 7 companies in the same list. We are among the top 3-4 countries in the world in the production of UAVs, SİHAs and offensive unmanned aerial vehicles. Despite the defamation efforts of some technology-impaired ignorant among us, our armed-unarmed attack drones are followed with envy all over the world.
From the victory of Karabakh to Libya, from the fight against terrorism to point operations, Turkish SİHAs are changing the methods of warfare in the world with their successes. Today, our armed and offensive unmanned aerial vehicles, together with our storm howitzers, have become the nightmare of terrorist organizations targeting our country, especially from outside our borders. We have personally witnessed how important and critical these two capabilities are during our Syrian operations. With our new generation storm howitzers entering the inventory, I hope we are riveting this power with these giant works of art and making it even more solid.”
Stating that they are determined to make 100, the 2023th anniversary of the Republic, a turning point in the defense industry as well as in other fields, President Erdoğan stated that 2023 will be a year full of good news, with very important developments that will make everyone proud.
President Erdoğan said: “We will take our national combat aircraft out of the hangar and show it to the whole world. Our jet-powered trainer and light attack aircraft HÜRJET will make its first flight. Flight maneuver tests and ammunition integrations of Bayraktar KIZILELMA, our combat unmanned fighter aircraft, will be carried out. This year, we are putting ANADOLU, which will be the world's first SİHA ship, into service. Bayraktar TB3 SİHA, which we will deploy to the ANADOLU ship, will perform its first flight. Our Gendarmerie General Command will start using our original helicopter GÖKBEY. Our ATAK-11 helicopter weighing 2 tons will make its first flight. We will launch the IMECE Earth Observation Satellite and the KILICSAT Cube Satellite, which will collect the position and route information of the ships, into space. I hope this year, the sea supply support combat ship DERYA, the first of our I-class frigates, Istanbul, and the first of our new submarines, PİRİREİS, will be included in the inventory.” he said.
In the same way, President Erdoğan noted that it will be a year in which air defense and missile systems have reached a certain stage and said that the long-range air defense and missile system SİPER will be put into service.
Reminding that the first deliveries of BOZDOĞAN in-sight and GÖKDOĞAN beyond-sight missiles will be made, President Erdoğan stated that the GÖKDENİZ close air defense system will begin to be integrated into ships.
President Erdogan concluded his speech as follows:
“The turbo jet engine developed for SOM and ATMACA missiles will be delivered to users. We will use the Lightning Target aircraft, converted into a cruise missile. We will complete the integration of domestic-national electronic warfare and electronic support codes to F-16s. We will deliver the early warning radar system ERALP. AESA, we will integrate its radar into AKINCI TİHA and F-16s. We will start the delivery of Armored Amphibious Assault Vehicle ZAHA and domestically powered Vuran armored vehicles. Along with all these, we will carry out the start, completion and delivery processes of many large and small projects.
We will continue the year 2023, which we started with the new generation storm howitzer delivery ceremony, with new good news that we will give to our nation in the field of defense. I say that my Lord will open our way and our luck, and I hope that with the new generation storms, your shots will be 100 percent hit. And I say give fear to enemies and trust to friends. I wish our 6 new generation storm howitzers to be beneficial to our heroic armed forces. On behalf of myself and my nation, I would like to thank you, my brothers and sisters, who made these deliveries by working with love, sincerity and determination despite all attempts to prevent them.”
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