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Interview

Partnerships with UK Companies Sharpening Turkey’s Technological & Manufacturing Edge via Knowledge Transfer

Mr. Stephen Phipson, Head of UKTI DSO talks with Defence Turkey Magazine about the opportunities that abound as traditional equipment sales have been reshaped to flourish into dynamic true partnerships and cooperation. The UK and Turkey are actively building upon their existing relationships as they embark upon long-term partnerships on projects transferring significant technology into Turkey

Date: Issue 77 - September 2017

Defence Turkey: First of all, could you please inform us about British companies and their products & capabilities displayed at IDEF 2017?

We’ve got a whole range of large and small companies here which is good and in fact the really interesting thing is, that although we’ve got everything from platform manufacturers like BAE systems to the very innovative smaller companies doing innovative technology, the one thing that’s really important are the relationships that build into Turkish industry. We have made an enormous amount of progress together in the last two years in the joining up of British companies with Turkish companies for technology transfer into Turkey, and this has been good. There’s a whole range, you’ve got everything from engine manufacturers, airframers like BAE systems, weapons manufacturing systems, MBDA here for the missiles systems for example, Leonardo which is enormous doing everything, radars, avionics, helicopters – the whole thing. So, we have the whole broad range and all of them are developing very strong relationships, so we see an acceleration of that relationship building here in Turkey through these innovative companies, we’re very very pleased with that. It’s very good.