Karayel the First National Unmanned Air Vehicle of Vestel Defence Displayed at IDEF for the First Time
Zorlu Group participated in the International Defence Industry Fair IDEF 2013 with its affiliated Defence industry companies Vestel Defence and AYESAŞ. Vestel Defence displayed the first national tactical unmanned air vehicle Karayel and training aircraft “Bora” that is also known as the junior of Karayel at IDEF before delivering them to the Turkish Armed Forces. In his speech at the introductory meeting, Zorlu Holding’s CEO Ömer Yüngül expressed that Turkey would become one of the top three countries of the World in unmanned air vehicles and said that “United States of America, Israel and Turkey. It may sound highly challenging though we shall determine this goal smoothly considering the talks we made”.
“Entire Software of the Vehicle is Local”
Yüngül gave information on their aircraft Karayel which is under development and shall be delivered to Turkish Armed Forces towards the end of this year. Yüngül stated that a serious amount of labor and money were exerted for the software and mechanics of the vehicle and added “Entire software of the vehicle is local. We developed it completely with Turkish engineers. After a 10-15 years’ time, a lot of aircrafts will be unmanned”. Yüngül mentioned that Karayel shall be used for surveillance by the Turkish Armed Forces and continued, ”Karayel shall be a surveillance vehicle rather than ammunition vehicle. The usage of unmanned surveillance air vehicles in civil aviation shall rapidly increase in the coming years. There shall also be a growth in the market with the usage of these unmanned air vehicles in civil aviation for the purpose of rescuing and cartography activities, forest fires and examination of environmental pollution.
“Bora” for the Training of Turkish Armed Forces’ Pilots
Vestel Defence General Manager Aziz Sipahi expressed that the Bora training aircraft also known as the ‘junior Karayel’ shall be used for the training of the Turkish Armed Forces’ Pilots and continued “Bora is an unmanned air vehicle that is designed for the purpose of avionic tests and pilotage trainings. We shall assign this vehicle to the training flights of Turkish Armed Forces even though they had no such demand.”
‘Psychological Barrier’- the Obstacle in Unmanned Air Vehicles Usage in Civil Aviation
At the introductory meeting, Sipahi showed the psychological barrier for the reason of lack of usage of unmanned air vehicles in civil aviation. Sipahi mentioned the hardship in accepting the concept of unmanned passenger flights and underlined the need for adopting the safety of unmanned air vehicles. Sipahi mentioned that this would take time and added that regulations regarding this issue are recent in the World. Sipahi said, “It is just under development in the USA and Europe. Therefore it cannot progress at the present. The point we would actually like to emphasize is that a requirement of obtaining a certificate of airworthiness for the usage of unmanned air vehicles in civil aviation. We are first not only in Turkey but also in the World. We are the first company in the region that designs and manufactures in line with the airworthiness standards of the NATO.” Stating that they would be focusing on the exports and international networks in the future period Sipahi continued, “As you may know, as the Defence group we have a second company AYESAŞ and with the help of this company’s critical software experience, we managed to develop Karayel’s central computer software aligning with the airworthiness standards. This is a first in the unmanned air vehicles sector”.
Sipahi, as a reply to the following questions in the meeting “Are you disturbed by the domination of the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation companies in the market? Have you ever reflected this issue to the civil will? Are there any complaints?” said that it was a sensitive subject and they believed that the private sector dynamics would contribute better to the country. Stating that exports are their primary goal, Sipahi continued: “If one desires to become a leader than he has to extend that product’s market. Turkish Armed Forces is a great reference for extending the market share. The more you increase this reference the more your ability to sell the products in the foreign markets will increase. Since the foundation companies win most of the tenders in this area, the distribution of the shares and profits increase. I myself believe that this will decrease in time and we may have a better functioning market and sector…
