Juusti: In Finnish Leopard Modernization Programme, Aselsan is a Strong Candidate

Defence Turkey: Could you please inform us about Finnish Defence policy, new procurement programs and modernization plans?

As you know, for the Finish Defence policy we are non-aligned country, we don’t belong to NATO but of course we are a member of the EU, so this does affect our position and our defence policies well defined in our white paper and actually the white paper is delivered in the beginning of this year and it is discussed in the parliament as well. The main issue over there is our defence policy, first task is still the homeland defence so the territorial defence remains our main task also in the future and the second task is to help the government with all other issues to provide the defence policies help for the other authorities, and the third one is the international tasks which means the peace support operations at those areas. Unlike in many European countries, we are still a territorial defence country and we do have the conscript service exactly the same as you have in Turkey and our conscript service is for one year. We have to plan to stick on that one and so there have been some defence cuts like many European nations, it has been roughly 10% but we expect that it will be compensated as from 2015 onwards. This affected also the procurement programs because some parts of the cuts were in the area of procurement, it was almost 50%. One of the big issues is midlife upgrade for our F-18 fighter aircraft which is going on and the other one is the main battle tank modernization which will come in the near future. But we are still in the process that we have to find out what should be done and what can’t be done with the new budget structure. So we are in the way that is not very active at this very moment. I think this includes more or less all the questions you asked at the first part.

Defence Turkey: Could you please inform us about your meetings during IDEF?

Actually whenever I make visits to these major exhibitions, I have all kinds of things in the agenda. One of the main issues is of course networking. I will be able to meet many of my colleagues here so we can discuss at the government level so this is very important and we can exchange views and many possibilities can arise between our own colleagues at the very short time so this provides an excellent agenda. The Turkish authorities and the industrial discussions here are very important for me. We do have some programs going on and the companies request information on the status of the programs and things like that. This visit provides me excellent possibility to know and get better idea of the capability of the local industry. I have been impressed by the level of the Turkish industry and so this provides me very good overview of the capability of your industry. So these are the four areas where I have had discussions and possibilities to proceed and I must say that it has been very positive. I attended all the major exhibitions in the past and this is actually my first time here in Turkey and it seems that this is one of the exhibitions I will have to visit in the future as well.

Defence Turkey: As it is known, Aselsan was a strong candidate in Leopard Modernization Project for Finnish army. Could you please inform us about the current status in the tender and how do you assess Aselsan’s capabilities?

We had very good discussions with Aselsan people and it was an excellent opportunity for me to see the real work they have done here in the modernization work, a Leopard modernization. And of course you are in a strong position if you have already done the modernization, it is not a prototype anymore so that is very important for me to get the idea of the level of the competence and see real hardware and I was impressed in that sense. There aren’t many companies who have done the modernization work for the leopard so I would say that Aselsan is a very strong candidate in that area because they have already the knowledge on this and they have been able to do that, they have the proof of that capability in that area. Concerning the current status as I mentioned you earlier, we do have the budget cuts and we are still planning about the program, so there aren’t any decisions yet but we hope there will be a decision by the end of this year or early next year to proceed, but I would say Aselsan is a strong candidate.

Defence Turkey:  It seems that the current bilateral relationship of Turkish companies and Finnish army are quite limited. So what is your assessment on activities and plans to strengthen defence cooperation between Finnish and Turkish companies?

It is a step by step process and there are good first steps already existing, there has been some contacts between the companies and between Finnish authorities but I would like to emphasize that actually the authorities of the Finnish defence policies, we don’t have the policy to have kind of direct relationship with the companies, we do that under competitive basis; competitive bidding is the way we do it. In that sense if your company is capable of competing successfully then there will be relationships, but building a relationship, a kind of partnership with some countries do, we don’t have that kind of policy, relationship is built on a success in competing in the programs. So this is something I have to stress of course there can be good relations, there can be bilateral relations at the company to company level which is very natural because the companies are participating in the common programs and if they find a partnership between Finnish company and Turkish company, so this is the natural way to proceed.

Defence Turkey: Could you please give more information about mutual defence cooperation between Turkey and Finland in terms of joint production, joint research and development programs?

I would say that in this sense it is mainly at the government level, it is a kind of exchange of information, and the governments have to discuss together, exchange information and have this kind of cooperation, not a kind but MoU in the area R&D and procurement areas. We have had, Finland has created this kind of bilateral agreements so called MoU between many countries and we have also proposed Turkey that this will be a good step to proceed, to agree that kind of MoU between the Finnish Ministry of Defence and the Turkish Ministry of Defence. So that would create the framework and the umbrella which would make it possible to work closely together.

Defence Turkey: It is known that many Finnish companies have been working in the Turkish market like Environics, Patria. What source of business opportunities could be considered for the Turkish and Finnish companies to provide common and mutual interests with each other? 

All the companies are working in the economic environment. So it means that every company, who is working on a free market, has to find some added values for the cooperation. So this kind of added value is a must to create the cooperation, you can’t have cooperation just on the shake of the hands, it doesn’t work that way, but once there is the possibility for the companies to find out the common interest, that can be a kind of technology sharing, that can be like participating in big programs, those are the good examples. As soon as you know the capability of another company, it might be possible to add an extra value to your own company so you will be more competitive together then you would be on your own. This is the way I see that it should be built and this is the kind of basis which is healthy and on which you can build your future.

Defence Turkey: Would you like to add remarks for Defence Turkey readers?

I would definitely like to add some messages because I was so surprised to see the level of the Turkish industry. If a nation is capable of building its own Atak helicopter, its own main battle tank, if it is considering also the next generation fighter aircraft, the industry is on the top and I was so impressed about the level of the Turkish industry and technology. This really impressed me.

Defence Turkey: Thank you very much for this interview.