SSB's privillige is BAYKAR AKINCI . Politic ties make some advantage for BAYKAR company .
I think Aksungur will not be more than a company project.
That would be suicidal and not beneficial in the long term for baykar
Both TAI and Baykar are important for developing UAVs
Today maybe Baykar is favored because of erdogan but tomorrow when new president is elected he might deliberately punish baykar due to politics TAI can survive without AKSUNGUR they are big company plus they are state owned but i think baykar would go straight into bankruptcy if they are “ignored” by next ruling party/president this can only bring harm to Turkey’s national interest
Baykar and TAI are strategic companies. No ruling party, doesn't matter which one will come in the future, would let any harm come to these companies. If they were to harm any of these companies it would be straight up treason.
Baykar's advantage is its company vision. They are one of the biggest sponsors for technofest for instance and are heavily involved in it. With technofest they are trying to inspire the youth to focus on various technologies (including various competitions). This comes from a vision and mission that this company upholds, as evident from the interviews from especially Selcuk Bayraktar, in which he talks about wanting to inspire the youth. He is our very own Bill Gates, Elon Musk type of industry leader.
Same can be said about the CEO of KALE Osman Okyay, in which they supported Baykar (among others) in their early days in order to benefit the technological infrastructure of the country. Cross company support is pretty common in our defence industry and that is one of the driving factors behind the growth the industry enjoys. Aselsan supports various companies a lot as well and has many subsidiaries. Many R&D companies work closely with companies like Aselsan, Tubitak, etc. My only wish is that this environment can be implemented better in different industries as well.
Corruption in our defence industry is common someone said. Far from it and here is why: The environment created in our defence industry, the mutual help towards each other is the driving force behind it. Many companies that we haven't even heard of enjoy the support of various industry giants including Aselsan, TAI, STM, as well as SSB, etc. in order to develop the technological infrastructure of our country. When a local company creates components, it is incentivized that OEM's procure their components from these local companies. And if a local option is not available, they find a capable local company and give them the order to develop a local variant of the part, like Meteksan with the helicopter radar, Electra IC with the Microchips, Yongatek with Microchips etc. The leap we made in our industry, the driving force behind it, the steps being taken, all of these couldn't have been possible if corruption was widespread.
In the early and mid 2000's there was bureaucratic friction sure, but I don't know if you can call that corruption. In the 90's and earlier (maybe 2000's as well), there were people from the military and bureaucracy pushing for foreign developed products but even then you can't conclude that it was because of corruption. It could have stemmed from the notion that they thought that foreign products had better quality or were just ignorant to the benefits of local production. You gotta also understand that this is a flag race, the benefits that the industry is enjoying right now is thanks to the roots planted all the way back in the 70's. And because it is a flag race, no future government will let any harm come to Baykar, TAI, Aselsan, Durmazlar, Bozankaya, Tulomsas, Tuvasas, and many others because these are all companies that have strategic value.