A Great Potential for Turkish-Italian Cooperation
Defence Turkey: What are your new strategies for coming future in terms of new programmes, new projects , new collaborations etc?
Italy has a long tradition of international cooperation in the field of Defence equipment both in Europe and out of Europe. The need of relying on increasingly complex defence systems, the heavy injection of high level technologies needed to cope with more and more demanding operational scenarios, coupled with the shrinking defence budgets, is making international cooperation a need rather than a best practice. International cooperation leads to common systems among partners, providing economies of scale during the in-service support phase, which in turn accounts for most of the cost of modern military equipment. In operation this approach makes interoperability straightforward while easing the sharing of in-service experiences and lessons learned among allies. All that to say that Italy will keep on seeking partners with whom to carry out defence cooperation programs, and international collaboration will remain a central element in the development of new equipment for our armed forces.
Regarding new programs, there is a lot in progress. I would mention some of them. A very significant modernization program of our Navy has been just launched, featuring advanced concept vessels. Besides the JSF participation, we are working towards an important European cooperation program for developing a state-of-the-art Medium Range Long Endurance UAV, while the P-1HH “Hammerhead” keeps on marching towards its operational phase-in. A new class of land combat vehicles is in the development phase. On rotor wing, AW-149 has reached an advanced stage of its certification process, while AW-101 CSAR, probably the most sophisticated machine in its class, is nearing entry into service with the Air Force.
Defence Turkey: How do you assess Italian Defence Industry capabilities in and around Italy?
Italian industry provides a well established and consolidated domestic technological and industrial base. And even more. Italian industry has a remarkable international footprint. Finmeccanica for instance has established through partnerships and acquisitions such a level of industrial footprint in some countries to consider them “domestic” markets as does for Italy, becoming a “true” multinational company. All the above is not by chance. Considerable national investments have been made over several decades. These achievements are also the outcome of constant teaming, while recognizing their distinctive roles, between the operational experience in international scenarios of our armed force and the entrepreneurship and competence of defence companies in mastering front-end technologies and manufacturing capabilities. The Italian defence industry has internationally recognized capacities in nearly all fields of defence, from satellites to warships, from armored vehicles to jet fighters, from defence electronics to submarine warfare, from training aircraft to missile systems, from propulsion systems to helicopters, and I am sure I might be missing many other cutting-edge products. But I wish to go back to the considerations I have already made on our industry international cooperation attitude, its knowledge, experience and competence gained by teaming with top defence companies around the word. In the today globalized defence this is a key added-value of which our armed forces and those of our friends and allies can take full advantage.
Defence Turkey: The excellent cooperation relations between Italian and Turkish industries have led to great commercial achievements in Turkey. What is your assessment on Turkey and Italy defence industry collaboration performed over the years?
Italian –Turkish industries have excellent and somehow special collaboration ties since many years. Often T-129 attack helicopter is mentioned as a successful study case and I believe this program is just at the beginning of deploying its entire potential of market success. Rotor wing is an area where there are still wide opportunities for Turkey and Italy of building on T-129 and to go much further. Many other fields of defence industrial cooperation between Turkey and Italy, actually in all domains, land, naval, air and space, are open to mutually beneficial initiatives. At the very beginning of our cooperation in defence, Turkey was a purchaser of systems. After that, it became soon an industrial supplier and it is today for us a full partner. This is undoubtedly due to the education, knowledge, competence, dedication, enthusiasm, determination that Turkey can express in many fields, including defence industry. For these reasons Italy is eager to keep playing a role in it by sharing with Turkey our knowledge, technologies and competence, an attitude I believe it is not usual business when one deals with other international actors, especially in a sensitive and strategic sector as defence. My impression is that Turkey is now at a time of important decisions about how to conceive its role and its international relations in defence industry and I am fully convinced that an open, fair, strong cooperation among Turkish and Italian industry can result highly beneficial for both our countries and our armed forces.
Defence Turkey: Within the scope of “Italian-Turkish Defence Industry Conference and B2B meetings” You have visited Ankara with a group of companies for bilateral meetings with Turkish government and companies at the end of March. What topics were discussed during the meeting? Did you take any mutual decision on future industrial cooperation and programmes? What will be the possible cooperation opportunities and fields between the two countries?
The Italian-Turkish Defence Industry Conference and the associated B2B meeting have definitely been a success. They have created an excellent frame for mutually sought G2G talks, an occasion for scanning together over the many opportunities for energizing our bilateral cooperation in the field of defence material. For instance, we have exchanged views on JSF, naval programs, precision guided weapons, helicopters, remotely piloted aircraft, trainers and naval vessels, but most important we have had the chance to talk with Undersecretary Mr. Demir in a very open and proactive way about our views on how and where we can best cooperate in the future and also to explain each other what are the reciprocal legitimate expectations from all potential and existing initiatives. It is not surprising to us that Turkish industry aims at playing a pivoting role in facing a very demanding plan for making Turkey more reliant on domestic defence systems, including making those systems even more successful on international markets. Italy has the technological capabilities, know-how, industrial strength and international experience in defence products such to integrate and complement as requested the Turkish industry. To this respect I see a great potential for Turkish-Italian cooperation in the years to come. The over 350 B2B meetings that were run in the two days that followed the government session have been a large exercise of dialogue and business-building between the Turkish and Italian industry.
Defence Turkey: What is your approach about Turkish defence companies’ taking place in Italian Programmes? Could any opportunities be arisen in future?
I have been impressed by the effort Turkish industry is devoting to support small-medium enterprises. The B2B meetings have opened a window on Turkish potential towards integrating to some extent the supply chain of large Italian companies. Vice versa it is also possible, as major Turkish company might seek to establish business relations with Italian suppliers in order to fill some gaps in their supply chain. Again, the wide set of B2B meetings was aimed at providing the opportunity to know each other industry capabilities and to create opportunities for fostering industrial cooperation at all tiers.
Defence Turkey: Would you like to add some remarks for our readers?
Being in Ankara for meeting Prof. Demir and its team, seeing Italian and Turkish people to merge, to talk, to discuss, to seek opportunities for making more secure, technologically advanced and wealthy our respective countries, exploring ways for cooperating and working together for mutual benefit has been for me an enriching experience. My encouragement to those people and to us is to keep the momentum and not to refrain from fully exploiting the great potential existing in and among our Nations.
