MilSOFT: A New Structure for Brilliant Future

Defence Turkey: Mr. Başyigit, it is seen that MilSOFT has taken significant steps for 14 years since its establishment. In terms of production, investment, export and international projects, how could you evaluate the developments in figures in recent years?

Starting from the beginning, we have set our target to be a major player in the world market as a competitive Turkish System Integration and SW Development Company. To our view, being competitive in such a sector requires a very high technology and can only be reachable by addressing three main areas. First is to work according to the most demanding international standards, second is to develop new and innovative technologies based on both leading edge open information & knowledge and finally, third is to utilize qualified workforce effectively and efficiently in order to achieve competitive prices lead by high productivity.

In order to understand how we proceeded in these three areas let me explain you in details. After we evaluated the accepted methodologies in the international market we decided to follow the most demanding and the most accepted one. MilSOFT first reached to Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Level 3 in 2003 and then reached to Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5 on February 24, 2005 as the first Company in Europe. MilSOFT was reassessed in February 2008 and managed to stay in CMMI Level 5 according to Version 1.2 Rules of SEI CMMI Methodology and became the 20th company in the world, who achieved this level according to the new guidelines. Again in 2011, after going through re-assessment, MilSOFT still holds her CMMI Level 5 certification.

MilSOFT is an R&D based company. MilSOFT’s yearly R&D budgets were the 30% of the incomes from the sales till the end of 2006. The R&D budget amount has increased continuously since then. In MilSOFT we initiated R&D Projects that would enable us to develop our own technologies and prototype some critical functions/capabilities for demonstrating them to our potential customers and procurement agencies. We have been able to develop our own technologies through R&D Projects for C4I Systems, Tactical Data Links, Image Exploitation Systems, Electronic Warfare, Simulation & Modeling, Embedded Systems, Information Communication Technologies, and CyberSecurity Solutions.

TÜBİTAK TEYDEB financial support to MilSOFT’s R&D Activities has been key enabling instrument to develop leading edge technologies. As a result of the R&D Projects we have carried out, we were able to get real projects both in Turkey and abroad.

One of the most important aspects in achieving MilSOFT’s highly set targets is to be able to utilize our personnel according to their competencies to manage their developments and to keep their motivation and performance at the possible highest scale. Among other factors, the belief in developing indigenous local defence capabilities has been motivation for our engineers.

Employing well planned and managed career development and accompanying competency and training management, MilSOFT workforce added value not only to national defence capability but also to themselves.

We believe the most important benefit MilSOFT is providing to her highly qualified and competent workforce is to add value to their knowledge, experience, and competencies continuously in MilSOFT work environment which is characterized by continuous R&D work performed in compliance to highest and most demanding international standards.

Defence Turkey: MilSOFT and MilSOFT ICT have merged under MilSOFT umbrella recently. Could you explain the reason behind this decision? How do you assess of this new structure of MilSOFT in terms of your capabilities and technology?

MilSOFT’s activities, besides developing defence applications and software, will also include civilian applications like Crisis/Emergency Management Information Systems, Fleet Management and Logistics Support Systems, and e-government applications as well as developing infrastructures with Network Centric capabilities for the purpose of integrating real-time and non-real time systems in the wide area.

Defence Turkey: How do you asses MilSOFT position in 2013? What are MilSOFT’s 2013 targets?

MilSOFT has developed her own solutions based on latest technologies and international standards. MilSOFT would like to contribute to new projects with her already gained capabilities and also improve her capabilities within her interest areas. We never just target the Turkish Market and we always aim to export our solutions to other countries as well. We have been marketing MilSOFT’s indigenous solutions in international market and it is going very promising for 2013 and following years.

MilSOFT has developed Scalable Combat Management System (CMS), which has Link-16/Link-22 data structure, based on latest technologies namely OACE (Open Architecture Computing Environment) and DDS (Data Distribution Services) by taking into consideration the requirements of New Generation CMS through an R&D Project and received Technological Success Award in Turkey with this solution. Also, MilSOFT successfully delivered the CMS to Turkish Coast Guard Search and Rescue Ship Project. MilSOFT’s CMS is one of the first implementation of CMS, which is based on these new technological standards set by the U.S. Navy and leading defence companies in the market. MilSOFT would like to contribute to new platform projects modernization projects, and also to New Generation CMS development with her already existing capabilities.

MilSOFT was chosen to develop "Link-11/Link-16 Multi Data Link System" in Genesis Project and successfully completed the tests on board of G-Class Frigates. MilSOFT has taken an important step in reaching a position of becoming one among a handful of companies worldwide to provide solutions for Multi-Link Processor. Together with the help of her Tactical Data Links R&D works, MilSOFT, by including its Link-22 capability into the multiple data link system, has obtained the opportunity of providing an important technological solution to the New Type Submarine Project, too. Recently, we received a Contract from Alenia, Italy for providing Link-16 solution to ATR-72 Aircrafts within Meltem-III Project. MilSOFT’s knowledge and experience on tactical data link and contains MilSOFT infrastructure software, which is compatible to current architecture (OACE) and international standards (OMG/DDS). As our Tactical Data Link system and CMS use the same infrastructure, their integration is seamless. We aim to keep contributing to the Projects that require Tactical Data Link Solutions with our existing solutions.

We have been able to develop most sophisticated Image Exploitation capabilities in Turkey through the R&D Project and these capabilities were utilized in Turkish UAV Project’s direct UAV Procurement part. We have been improving these capabilities through R&D Projects and we plan to provide new capabilities to related Programmes. Also, we have been working as a subcontractor to TAI for the Ground Control Station Mission Systems Software.

We have developed and delivered EW Programming & Simulation Laboratory for Turkish Navy and also Joint EW Training Systems & Simulator (JETS&JETSIM) to Turkish General Staff. Both of the projects were very successful in terms of the capabilities we provided and also we managed the early deliveries to the customers within these Projects. We managed to use different subcontractors within these Projects and early deliveries in these projects show our ability to use subcontractors. MilSOFT’s experienced EW Team expects to have new EW Projects.

In the IT field, we have developed a Fleet Management & Lifecycle Support System, namely Mil-TRAC. Standard-based Mil-TRAC solution enables users to extend their complex vehicles’/assets’ life and reduce life cycle costs while improving maintenance efficiency. On the other hand Mil-TRAC enables smooth transition to Performance Based Logistics (PBL) by collecting valuable PBL metrics form operational work points. Mil-TRAC is on the way to commercialize. As a first step to commercialization, Mil-TRAC has been chosen for the (Altay) Turkish Main Battle Tank project as a Logistics Life Cycle Support and Fleet Management solution during tank prototyping phase.

Being already experienced in command and control area, using the international standards and experiences gained in Turkey and advanced countries in the field, MilSOFT developed an indigenous Emergency Management Information System (Mil-EMIS). Mil-EMIS provides tools for the decision makers and first responders to make sound decisions rapidly and manage the Disaster and Emergency situations in coordination with other organizations. It supports the main phases of the emergency management process, namely, Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. We have deployed Mil-EMIS at Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) as the National Emergency Management Information System of Turkey and customized the system at city level for the use of Istanbul Governorship. We are aiming to distribute the capability to all cities of Turkey in integration with the National system, and also carry this solution to international markets.

Besides these stated topics, MilSOFT has some other ongoing R&D projects that will lead to new solutions in the market.

Defence Turkey: It is well known that MilSOFT has become an important partner of reputable global defence companies such as Sikorsky, Rockwell Collins, Thales, HDW, Alenia, etc in various projects. Could you please inform us about your international activities? What are your plans in the coming years? What are its export-based strategies and market goals? How do you assess MilSOFT’s position in international platforms?

Since the beginning, we started to get business to provide critical software solutions to the very well known international leading defence companies of the technologically developed countries such as USA, Israel, France, Germany, UK and Italy.

Until the end of 2004, our income was only formed by the overseas projects that we have accomplished in this manner. After we have proven our company in the international market, we started to get business from domestic market with our own technologies and capabilities.

Throughout the time, as MilSOFT started to develop her own products such as; JETS&JETSIM, CMS, Image Exploitation Systems, Tactical Data Link Solutions, Electronic Warfare Solutions, and ICT Solutions that are marketable all around the world. Our marketing activities for these solutions are going on in Gulf Region Countries, Middle Eastern Countries and Far Eastern Countries and we achieved positive progresses. Our aim is to reach to 40% export within the following five years.

Defence Turkey: Do you find the applied policies to strengthen Turkish Defence Industry efficient enough and what would you recommend more?

As you know Undersecretariat for Turkish Defence Industries (SSM) plays a very important role in the development of Defence Industry. SSM’s vision is "to meet the system requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces and the government organizations that promote the national defence and security; to establish and implement the strategy and procedures for the development of national defence industry". Especially after 2004, SSM has started to focus on establishing and implementing the strategy and procedures for the development of defence industry by requesting national solutions that would strengthen the Turkish Defence Industry. SSM’s determination for increasing the National Solutions in Defence Projects is very important in order to have the capabilities/products within the local companies.

We believe that having a credit tool that can be utilized for the export sales in order to help Turkish companies competitive in the countries that require foreign credit is a need. We heard that SSM has been working on this issue and it will be a very useful tool for the companies in Turkey.

Capabilities gained by local companies through the National Projects as a result of developing local/national defence industry policy shall not be sacrificed by the contention between the Companies. We believe the importance of using the existing capabilities instead of re-developing already developed capabilities in different companies. This will reduce the effects of cost, schedule, and risk. We expect the necessary sensitivity from the decision makers in order to support this approach for not duplicating the capabilities within different companies.

Improving defence system needs of the end users and giving enough time for local indigenous R&D for these needs and allowing local development of needed systems will also help to achieve the goal of increasing the Turkish Firms’ participation in defence spending.

We believe SSM shall play an important role to take the responsibility of harmonizing the defence companies according to their capabilities and potential targeted capabilities of the Projects.