Turkey To Produce Warheads, Airplane Bombs
ANKARA — Turkey will this year launch a “national” factory to produce its own warheads, airplane bombs and plastic explosives, a Cabinet minister said Apr. 16.
Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Isik told reporters here that the
new facility will be situated on an ammunitions production campus operated by state-controlled producer MKE near Kirikkale in Central Anatolia.
“The new factory will end our dependence on foreign suppliers of warheads and airplane bombs,” said the minister.
Isik said the plant will also produce 600 tons of plastic explosives annually.
The factory was jointly designed by TUBITAK SAGE, a space and aerospace unit of the state scientific research agency TUBITAK and MKE.
“According to the international treaties Turkey is a signatory to, we have had to obtain export licenses from the supplier company’s country to meet our requirements for warheads and bombs. And we failed to meet our needs if the country in question did not allow its manufacture. We aim to end this [problem] by producing [those items] ourselves,” Isik explained.
Turkey is a signatory to the Missile Technology Control Regime.