Turkey to meet defense industry requirements locally

Defense Industry Undersecretary Murat Bayar has said Turkey is very close to having a completely national defense industry.

Speaking in a TRT programme, Bayar replied to questions posed by TRT News Editor-in-chief Ahmet Böken.

Bayar said the share of national companies in the defense industry had increased two fold in eight years meeting for half of the total expenditures and noted that their plan for the next five years was to meet all requirements of the defense industry with national companies.

Defense Industry Undersecretary Murat Bayar pointed to the present state of affairs in the industry, saying half of Turkey’s 3-4 billion dollars’ worth of annual purchases were met by the national industry. He said further that more than one thousand small and medium scale businesses operated in the defense industry.

Bayar also said that the trials of ANKAs were very successful, adding that a smaller type of those aircraft was in the offing and the first delivery was expected next year.

Another important project is the locally made assault helicopter called ATAK.

Bayar said the ATAK project was underway, that three helicopters were ready for use and a total 51 helicopters were going to be delivered to the armed forces.

Bayar also made an assessmnet of the problems faced in the delivery of armoured personnel carriers called hedgehog.

He said their production was underway and 273 of them had already been handed over to the Ground Forces.

02.10.2012
SOURCE:  http://www.trt-world.com