Defence Turkey: Within the scope of the programs conducted under the auspices of your Unmanned and Smart Systems Department, could you share with us the recent status of the Tactical Class UAV procurement programs of the Security General Directorate, Gendarmerie General Command and Land Forces Command?
With the Tactical Class UAV Systems included in the inventories of Security General Directorate Gendarmerie General Command and Land Forces Command, target acquisition and directing the maneuvers and firing are being run with the payloads, additionally these systems are capable of engaging and destroying the targets with instant visualization as well as the limited ammunition capability. Various countries across the world procure these Tactical UAV Systems and assign them to diverse tasks.
Delivery of the TB2 systems, manufactured by Baykar Makine A.Ş., to various users as part of the Tactical Class UAV Projects executed by our Undersecretariat is ongoing. The delivered UAV systems are providing services with a high readiness rate. Our assessments for enabling the utilization of the aforementioned systems in commercial areas are in progress and we believe that the unmanned air vehicles technology, providing worldwide high rate of utilization opportunities, will be significantly demanded in the commercial sector as well.
Defence Turkey: What is the project schedule envisioned for the system deliveries within the scope of the Anka-S program? In addition, considering the Anka Block-B procurement activities of the National Police, when will the contract be signed with TAI? Could you inform us on the latest status of the project?
The ANKA-S system, which is an operative UAV System with a long endurance capacity at medium altitude, will be utilized by the Air Forces Command. In the current situation, inventories of the Air Forces of many countries in the world have operative class UAV systems.
The system deliveries are planned to be accomplished in 2017 and 2018 in line with the ANKA-S Project schedule. Moreover, the Operative UAV system requirement of the Security General Directorate is expected to be fulfilled with the Operative UAV System Procurement Project that is planned to be signed with TAI in the near future.
Defence Turkey: In addition to the procurement and development of Unmanned Air Vehicles, the Bomb Disposal Robot Project, development activities of which are carried out by Aselsan, is again being conducted under the responsibility of your Unmanned and Smart Systems Department. The delivery of the first systems was planned to take place in 2018. Yet, there is an immediate requirement of the Security General Directorate, so is it possible to hasten the timeline and make the first party delivery in 2017? Could you please elaborate on the recent status of the activities conducted to this end?
The deliveries of the Light Armored Vehicles within the scope of the project were made in December 2015 and January 2016, eight months prior to the project schedule since there was an emergency for the systems. Currently, the qualification tests of the manufactured prototypes are also being run earlier than the delivery period. As a result of our negotiations with Aselsan, we reached an agreement on both increasing the amount of the party deliveries of the Bomb Disposal Robot and on the accomplishment of the deliveries before the delivery period according to the project schedule in order to fulfil the emergency of the Security General Directorate.
Defence Turkey: Mr. Demirel, the feasibility study for the Call for Proposals as part of the AKINCI UAV development project is in progress. Which type of a project model will be formed within the scope of this program? This is a big platform, very large scale. Could we speak of a consortium model in this project as well as was mentioned for the naval vehicles?
With the AKINCI Project, we aim to develop the equivalent of the UAV systems in a similar category currently possessed by few countries in the world, having a high speed UAV System with satellite control capability and payload capacity of over a ton. This project will be a domestic development project that requires the development of certain critical sub systems, components and technologies (through local resources) which have not reached the desired level of maturity under the current situation. Within such a framework, our main objective is setting up a project model that would minimize the risks by fulfilling the financial, scheduling and performance requirements. From this point of view, the alternatives including a consortium are on our agenda for launching a phased project model with the progressive capacity increase approach.
Consequently, within the context of the AKINCI Project, the offers to be received for the Call for Proposals will play a determining role. The Call for Proposals is on track to be issued in the first half of 2017.
Defence Turkey: What kind of a road map do you have in respect to the procurement programs of the Striker, Micro and NANO UAV systems and in parallel with this, the indigenous development of these systems in the prospective phases?
The suicide drone systems are being used for the acquisition and destruction of targets at close-range by military units, primarily Special Force units. These drones with an operation radius of 10km and approximately 15 minutes of endurance with “loitering” capability are able to identify and immediately neutralize targets that may threaten the troops in theater. Initially the target is identified with cameras over the Striker UAV suitable for single use and immediately after the target is acquired the UAV completes a suicide attack to the target with explosives. The Micro UAV systems suitable for the utilization of a one-man operation, team and task force become a standard capability that need to be possessed by military units performing in a close conflict atmosphere. Due to the urgency of the requirements within the scope of the Striker UAV project, the first 6 systems are supplied through direct procurement from abroad. Simultaneously the remaining requests for 18 systems will be covered from local resources.
NANO UAV systems are used by Special Forces and intelligence organizations for close range surveillance and reconnaissance. These systems with a very limited task range and endurance capability provide great advantage especially in the acquisition targets in urban conflict areas and undercover targets. With the advantages of the Micro UAV systems suitable for one-man use or at a team level, their worldwide utilization is rapidly increasing. The procurement of 10 systems was completed as part of the Nano UAV procurement contract.
Micro UAV systems are being used for close range surveillance and reconnaissance purposes by military units and law enforcement officers, primarily Special Forces and intelligence organizations. Micro UAV systems with a task range of a few kilometers and limited endurance are capable of close-range surveillance of fixed installations as well as detection of targets that may threaten operative units. Micro UAV systems are convenient for usage by one-person, team or task force have become a standard capability that needs to be included in many operating environments. We plan to deliver the Micro UAV systems that will be supplied for the needs of our agencies in 2017.
http://www.defenceturkey.com/en/con...erm-and-strategic-defense-industry-plans-2593