KMW Envisions Turkey as her Strategic Business Partner with its New Establishments in Turkey
Defence Turkey: It is known that KMW has strengthened its position in the market thanks to its accumulated knowledge for Turkish Army. Could you please enlighten us about the projects and programmes carried out in Turkey
Since many years the Turkish armed forces belong to the most trusted customers of KMW. We have established an excellent relationship which is of utmost importance to realize demanding and strategic programs such as the MBT LEOPARD 2 or the LEGUAN bridge laying system. In addition the LEGUAN, as well as the FENNEK-exportprogram with its integrated Stinger Weapons Platform, have clearly proven that KMW is more than willing to offer local content and a true technology transfer that is beneficial to the Turkish industry.
Defence Turkey :Recently your new office in Istanbul has been initiated. Could you please expound on the activities be performed and your targets with this new formation?
Yes, that is right. We are currently establishing a wholly owned KMW-subsidiary, Krauss Maffei Wegmann Savunma Teknolojileri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. in ?stanbul. In a first step we intend to offer a local interface for our customer, the Turkish Army. In a second step it is our strategic intention to bring KMW-technology to Turkey and to build an own plant to develop specific solutions, vehicles and combat systems based on our technology to meet the explicit local demand. In short: we do not intend to simply export but to create a true technological local content as well as a production benefit to Turkey with Turkish engineers and employees
DefenceTurkey:It is obvious that you ascribe importance to R&D studies. Could you please elaborate on your R&D studies, new technologies of KMW?
KMW has a very strong technology background. Around 20 percent of our workforce works in R&D. This is probably one of the major reasons why so many of our products enjoy an outstanding reputation for the technological reliability and superiority.
DefenceTurkey:KMW has cooperated with Turkish companies in the past and is presently doing so. Could you please give more information about your partnerships with Turkish Defence Industry?
To answer this questions it is necessary to understand our cooperation philosophy. KMW has never been a pure and simple exporter of products and programs. We have always been eager to establish a sound relation to the industrial base of our cutsomers and to envolve them in the programs to a maximum extend. This is a dedicated general-contractor-startegy. With regard to Turkey: we have long and successully established relationsships with, for example, Aselsan. In the past we procured their Stinger-weapon-system and integrated in the vehicles of west-european customers. In addition we plan to involve them further in the LEOPARD-program. And with regard to bridge layers, we are currently producing the LEGUAN-system together Turkish Army Depot in Kayseri. I believe that all these examples clearly underline our willingness to cooperate and to transfer technology. And it also includes the clear willingness establish further partnerships and even joint ventures with the Turkish industry.
