This project was launched by the Defence Industry Executive Committee’s Decree in 2005 and then entered into force in 2010 with TÜBİTAK’s resources.Following the issuance of the call for tender in 2012, the evaluation of the proposals was finalized in December 2013 and the signature of the contract phase arrived. Undersecretary for Defence Industries Murad Bayar, General Manager Murat Erciyes on behalf of Meteksan Defence - the main contractor of the Project, President of the Bilkent University Prof. Abdullah Atalar, representatives of MilSOFT, TÜBİTAK-Sage, TÜBİTAK UAEKE and Roketsan-the sub-contractors of the Project and commanders of the Naval and Air Forces Command attended the signing ceremony held at the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries’ premises. 

Meteksan Defence General Manager Murat Erciyes stated in his speech at the ceremony that the KEMENT Project started in 2005 and their company was involved in the Project later in 2009 and continued,“This Project has been activated within a period of five years. I believe that the program shall contribute greatly to Turkey, stakeholders and platform manufacturers as Turkey will be activating a national data band in a long range. Second important fact is that even though the final configurations may seem to appear different than each other as there are two different platforms, in reality we are speaking of a direct data band for long-range flights in terms of design components. In my opinion this is significant in terms of cost-efficiency and sustainability”. Undersecretary for Defence Industries Murad Bayar stressed that they demonstrated that system engineering works could be accomplished in Turkey and said, “Turkey proved that all sorts of land vehicles, naval platforms and unmanned aerial vehicles could be realized in Turkey in terms of system engineering. Yet this is not enough. If we lack to accomplish dominance in critical technologies, we fail to own these platforms. We have a great effort in this path. Our R&D department launched 21 significant projects. An investment of approximately 1 billion US$ has been made in defence industry. We now have brand products and platforms. Yet we still need to acquire critical technologies. This is a brand new stage for us and we have to fully use Turkey’s engineering and academic capacity for success and for providing the technological depth we aim to have”.