Finland to Schedule of Corvette Mine Class Upgrade

Defence Turkey:  Thank you very much for the interview.  In the IDEF in 2013 you shared with us information about budget cuts of defence procurements and said “that it has been roughly 10% but we expect that it will be compensated as of 2015.  This affected also the procurement programs because the parts of the cuts were in the areas of procurement and it was around 50%.”   What is the latest status of the procurement and modernization plans since that time? 

As I indicated, those were the plans and now we had the election a couple of weeks ago and we will get a new government, and we have been promised that we will get more money in the defence budget and especially in the investment programme.  We are pretty confident that we are able to proceed and the future will be better, so we hope that our losses will be compensated.

Defence Turkey:  What is this budget as they mentioned?

We should get €100 million annual increase for the defence budget, especially for the procurement.  

Defence Turkey:  Does that mean there could be a new modernization programme as well?

Yes, there might be some new modernization programme but mainly we will proceed with the old ones. 

Defence Turkey:  One of the big issues of the Finnish procurement programme is mid-life upgrade for F-18 fighter aircraft, and the other one is the main battle tank modernization programme.  Could you please inform us about the latest status?

F-18 modernization programme is running on schedule and it will be delivered in two year’s time. It is proceeding very well but then we have to replace the F-18 with new fighter aircraft and we have already started that process. The other one was the main battle tank modernization. That was the plan but we have bought from the Netherlands 100 pieces of new or little-used Leopard 2A6 so we don’t need to modernize them anymore. There’s another issue that we are having the modernization of our navy and we are considering to have 4 new vessels at the size of the corvette mine class.

Defence Turkey:  So Aselsan is no longer in the game then…

Not in the Leopard modernization, nobody is in that game because we bought them.

Defence Turkey:  You mentioned at the previous IDEF, according to Finnish defence policies, the natural way to pursue a relationship in the way of bilateral relations is at the company to company level.  How do you evaluate the bilateral cooperation between Finnish and Turkish companies in terms of joint production, joint research and development programmes?

There are some examples on that point, but perhaps the most important issue is that we signed a declaration of intent together with the Finnish government and the Turkish government which provides us the legal document, the basis to proceed in the cooperation and there is a plan to have an industrial conference in Finland where Turkish companies will come this year, so this is really concrete.

Defence Turkey:  When will this happen?

The first plan is that it should happen even in June, but I’m not quite sure whether it will happen that fast.  

Defence Turkey:  Will it be in Helsinki?

It will be in Helsinki, before the end of this year.

Defence Turkey: Will it be similar to the one years before, the Finnish delegation was here with Turkish defence industrial companies?

Yes, I suppose it is a bit like that but now we have the new framework agreement so we can proceed easily on that point.

Defence Turkey: When you compare 2015 to the previous show, how do you evaluate this fair from your point of view?

I was very surprised two years ago, this was a big and well-organized place already at that time and it has improved even more.  There are more companies and I would say that one of the issues is that I have been meeting some of the start up companies and it seems that you have many innovative small companies as well.

Defence Turkey:  SMEs and critical designers, design companies…and also there are some Finnish companies like Environics…they were supposed to be at the Finland pavilion…

Yes, originally that kind of discussion but I don’t actually know what happened, because they deserve a very good place to be and our companies should be here and I will pass the word on as well.

Defence Turkey:  Finnish design capabilities are really great, what kind of mutual cooperation fields could exist between Turkish technology companies and the Finnish companies? How do you assess that?

I think this has to be assessed on a company-to-company level. I was very surprised today that the level of the simulation companies is so high here, so this could be one of the areas for cooperation in the future.

Defence Turkey: Do you think that in the near future there could be some possibilities and opportunities for Turkish companies in some of the programmes in Finland?

I think there will definitely be, but I think it has to go through company-to-company level, and that’s the reason we are organizing this industrial conference in Finland.

Defence Turkey:  Would you like to add some points for readers?

I have enjoyed very much my time here and I am looking forward to coming here again in two year’s time.