IDEF’ 15 Gathers the Giants of Defence Industry
The 12th International Defence Industry Fair was held at the Tuyap Fair and Congress Center in Istanbul on 5-8 May 2015. This year, 781 companies from 53 countries participated in the IDEF fairwhich is considered as the region’s greatest Defence Industry Fair and that remains among the world’s top five defence industry events. Moreover, throughout the fair, 123 delegations from 76 countries, 1 international organization and 493 members of delegations, military and defence officials made contacts with the representatives of the companies on various issues. 20 Ministers, 6 Chiefs of General Staff, 20 Deputy Ministers, 3 Deputy Chief of Staff, 7 Force Commanders and 15 Undersecretaries and many civilian and military procurement authorities attended this year’s event.
Many products such as the Land, Sea, Air and Space Platforms, Transportation, Main Battle Tanks, Unmanned Air Systems, Rockets and Guided Missiles, Torpedoes and Torpedo Defence Systems, Radar Warning Systems, Training and Simulation systems, Armored Land Vehicles, Electronic Warfare, Intelligence and Communication Systems and light and heavy weapons were displayed at the event.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan realized the opening of the event and National Defence Minister İsmet Yılmaz, Minister of Science and Technology FikriIşık, Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel and representatives from 70 countries attended the ceremony.
Giving the opening address of the opening ceremony, General Manager of Turkish Armed Forces Foundation (TSKGV) Orhan Akbaş stated that IDEF has become an important cooperation, promotion and marketing platform for local and international supply authorities and defence industry firms. Akbaş said, “IDEF event is now amongst the top five Defence Industry fairs around the world. In addition to the increasing committee and firm numbers, and with the new technology products exhibited, IDEF has become an important cooperation, promotion and marketing platform for supply authorities and defence industry companies”.
In his speech at the event’s opening ceremony, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mentioned that in the production of military vehicles and devices, their purpose is to provide support to other countries’ defence industries while defending our country and added, “To defend our country and our people, taking precautions are both our rights and our responsibilities as the administrators. As long as there are attackers in the world, it is essential to remain prepared for defence. We support, develop and strengthen our defence industry not only for ourselves, but also for our friends.Our purpose is not only to sell goods. We also aim to found long lasting partnerships and to develop joint projects.”Erdoğan also said, “Today, two Turkish defence companies remain among the 100 World’s greatest defence industry companies. The production potential of our Defence Industry exceeded 5 billion USD last year. With an annual amount of 1 billion Turkish Liras allocated to R&D, our Defence Industry became one of the sectors that allocate the most budget to research and development and technology investments. Presently, we are capable of covering 54 percent of our Defence Industry requirements through our own resources. Our aim is to completely abandon our Defence Industry’s foreign dependency in 2023”.
Following the speeches, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Chief of General Staff Full General Necdet Özel, National Defence Minister İsmet Yılmaz and accompanying delegation visited the Turkish stands - notably the Aselsan, TAI, Roketsan, FNSS, MKEK, Vestel Defence stands – and collected information on the products from their representatives.
Following the twelfth IDEF’15, the next event will be held once more in Istanbul on 9-12 May 2017.
