An Overview by Mr. Bilal Aktaş, Head of Subsystems Department of SSM

When we look at the developments emerged in recent years regarding the defence industry, we see that Turkey is now able to design and produce its own national tank, missile, vessel, unmanned aerial vehicle and many electronic systems. These systems’ acceptance and usage by requiring authorities, especially by the Turkish Armed Forces has at the same time increased interest to our country’s defence industry products. However, when exporting such products on the basis of subsystems, it may be necessary to obtain the permission of other countries from time to time. In order to respond to the demands of foreign markets rapidly, the production of some critical subsystems by local industry becomes even more important. Within this context, the Department of Subsystems was established with the objective to specialize in subsystems and for the purposes of:

Identification of critical subsystems that would serve to multiple platforms or systems and execution of projects that would allow their domestic production, 

Conducting the projects for the naturalization of the subsystems and components that are deemed appropriate for domestic production,

Supporting the cooperation efforts for the domestic production of imported subsystems, 

Execution of projects covering the subsystems with no domestic production or depot level maintenance (DLM) or those are difficult to supply, 

Conducting the projects covering the mass production of components and subsystems (the R&D studies of which were completed) that would be used either in platforms or within the systems 

As the Undersecretariat, with the establishment of this Department, we raised the applications that required the utilization of sub-industry and SMEs within the scope of the procurement projects to a higher level. We had started to implement such measures in order to strengthen our industry in 2011. We wish to direct the sub-industry’s and SMEs potential arising from the production to the design and product ownership of the subsystems. 

During IDEF’15, I strongly recommend our local companies to examine the products they will see at the stands of the main contractors on the basis of imported subsystems from the perspective of their expertise and to identify their potential collaboration areas by making negotiations with foreign companies in order to enter the global markets. Within this context, evaluating the solution proposals to be submitted to our Undersecretariat is amongst our priorities. 

I wish IDEF’15 brings all participants new opportunities and collaborations.