Firing, Test and Evaluation Center: A Significant Milestone for Turkey

Ministry of National Defence - Firing, Test and Evaluation Center (ATDM), which was established by the main contractor Roketsan at Karapınar-Konya, was opened with the participation of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu as well as many military and defence officials. 

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the MOD Firing, Test and Evaluation Center, Prime Minister Davutoğlu mentioned that Turkey has made a significant headway regarding the development of defence industry infrastructure since 2002 and said “In 2002, Turkey was importing 80% of its defence industry needs; since then Turkey’s foreign dependency has been reduced by the development achieved in major and strategic areas”. Davutoğlu stated that Turkey has become one of the major defence industry countries of the world thanks to the strategic vision introduced during the last 12 years and said “With 5 billion USD production, 1.6 million USD export and 1 billion USD R&D investment, our defence industry has become a leading sector amongst other industry sectors. The development of the defence industry and the strengthening of the infrastructure in consequence is not only critical for the defence industry but also for the general structure of the industry and our economy.” 

Davutoğlu emphasized that Turkey is now able to realize all kinds of applications by its own capabilities with the activation of this centre and possesses one of the important firing, test and evaluation centres of NATO. “This facility is of vital importance to see the consequences of innovations we have made so far in R&D area” said Davutoğlu.

Prime Minister Davutoğlu: “The legislation for Space Agency will be submitted to the Parliament soon”

Emphasizing the need also for a new technological infrastructure to finalize this conventional table in the missile and rocket area, Davutoğlu said: “Our national capacity should also be developed in this sense in addition to the capacity we have within NATO. The instabilities around us clearly showed us that Turkey should develop its missile and space technologies. We should undoubtedly hold one of the most prominent infrastructures of the world in terms of missile and space technologies if we will secure our survival and existence also within the next century. Within this context, we are determined to submit the legislation regarding Space Agency to the Parliament soon”.

Davutoğlu pointed out that technological capacity is as important as quantitative capacity of armies and said: “As we also mentioned in the opening ceremony of the Radar and Warfare Technologies Center, holding such technology means winning a war without making a war, because deterrence gives the required message to the other party”.

“Today, here at this Center, we are witnessing the significant infrastructure of such deterrence. This Center will also have the infrastructure feature where I believe the visitors; foreign, allied military and armed forces officials to attend the operations and studies can watch with admiration” said Davutoğlu.

Project completed in 38 months

The Center (ATDM) was completed in 38 months as per the turnkey basis contract signed between NATO Supply Agency (NSPA) and Roketsan in 2011. Having the international standarts, ATDM not only serves the Turkish defence industry institutions and organizations, but also to foreign companies in respect to test activities. ATDM will provide critical advantages to Turkey in various matters such as protection of confidentiality in national projects, shortening R&D processes and increasing firing security. 

At the Firing, Test and Evaluation Center; there are many data measuring, recording and tracking systems including Multi-Sensor Optical Tracking and Radar Systems, as well as portable optical systems that can realize immediate data transmission and long-range tracking radar systems. With its competitive technological level, that can compete with the test centres available in countries such as USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and South Africa, ATDM aims to become one of the focus centres of the region in this field. 

At ATDM, any and all kinds of artillery ammunition, tank, rocket and missile tests can be performed in addition to the tests regarding range, direction, position, distribution, accuracy, velocity and acceleration. Activities such as command control implementation at firing, collection of data at a single center, its process, analysis and storage, simultaneous performance of multiple firing tests, receiving live videos from target area can also be realized at ATDM.