ROKETSAN, Turkey`s Rocket and Missile Center of Excellence, Reveals 9 New Products at IDEF`21
Emphasizing that they have tried to take advantage of the time that has passed since the IDEF '19 Fair, İKİNCİ said that during this period they strived to provide products that could replace foreign-sourced products in the inventory and that were also far superior to their equivalents to friendly and brotherly countries, especially to the Armed Forces. With a focus on transforming ROKETSAN's core capabilities into products and to avoid any difficulties caused by the sanctions that the Turkish Armed Forces has faced recently, İKİNCİ also stated that ROKETSAN has a team of 3,500 people, and that there are nearly 3,000 companies currently supporting ROKETSAN.
Noting that in the first half of 2021, the ATMACA Anti-Ship Guided Missile successfully completed its final test firing and they started mass production, İKİNCİ said, “From this moment forth, we will hopefully equip our own ships with our own Anti-Ship Guided Missiles.” Stating that they will exhibit the land version of ATMACA for the first time at the IDEF Fair, İKİNCİ said, “KARA ATMACA is a surface-to-surface cruise missile capable of hitting its target with pinpoint accuracy at long range. There is an Imaging Infrared (IIR) Seeker available on ATMACA, which is different than the maritime version. With this seeker, we hopefully our Armed Forces will gain the ability to engage ground targets without being detected by radar systems. İKİNCİ also said the following about ATMACA's export potential and order status. “Several countries around the world show interest in our ATMACA Guided Missile. Certainly, the sale of them will be decided as a result of the negotiations under the guidance of our state, but I can say that the demand is very high, much higher than you can imagine. We want to share this capability especially with friendly, brotherly and allied countries with which Turkey has good relations, but for now it's too early to mention any names and quantity. We have not received an order yet.”
Stating that another product they will showcase at the fair will be the LEVENT Close-in Air Defense System, İKİNCİ shared the following information about the LEVENT System and its versions. “As it is known, the Close-in Air Defense Systems on our ships generally consist of RAM and SeaRam products. We will unveil our LEVENT System, which will provide close air defense support on ships where our SUNGUR Portable Air Defense Missile is located. The LEVENT System will have two versions. The first version will destroy targets using only the electro-optics and radars on the ship and the second version will have the ability to engage with its own electro-optic and radar systems. We will also make modifications on the existing SUNGUR Missile. Its range will be extended and technologies such as the RF seeker and RF receiver will be introduced in order to track targets more closely.”
İKİNCİ also mentioned that the AKYA Heavyweight Torpedo will be exhibited for the first time at IDEF and added, “AKYA will be the main weapon of our submarines. By the end of this year, we will hopefully deliver the first versions of AKYA for the use of our Armed Forces. As you know, AKYA was first launched from our TCG GÜR Submarine and the firing tests are still in progress in the Sea of Marmara.”
Noting another new product to be exhibited at the fair, the ORKA Lightweight Torpedo, İKİNCİ summarized the main difference between the ORKA and AKYA was the ability to be launched from air platforms and its submarine engagement capability. İKİNCİ stated that with the ORKA Lightweight Torpedo, they aim to provide the capability to engage submarines detected at sea from helicopters such as SeaHawk, Maritime Patrol Aircraft and air platforms in the inventory of the Naval Forces.
ROKETSAN General Manager İKİNCİ gave the following information about other indigenous solutions, which were among the 9 new products they would showcase for the first time at the IDEF Fair:
“Considering the projects that we have realized for the Air Forces, the LAÇİN Weapon System is one that we will display for the first time at IDEF. As you know, LAÇİN is the advanced version of our TEBER System. TEBER is a Laser Guided kit that renders Mk-82 general purpose bombs smart and enables them to hit targets with laser guidance. We have rendered LAÇİN to maneuver as per the man-in-the-loop principle. The first firing has been realized successfully with the F-16s in the inventory of the Air Forces. The key feature of LAÇİN is its man-in-the-loop capability, that is, the pilot has the ability to control the ammunition after it is fired. In this way, the target can be more effectively hit with last-minute maneuvers, especially in areas such as shelters, caves and passages. Hopefully, this technology will also enhance the strength of our Air Force. Again, we will exhibit the MAM-T Smart Micro Munition, which we have recently tested and announced to the press, at IDEF for the first time. The MAM-T weighs approximately 100 kg and has a range of 30 km, and it will be fired from our Armed UAVs, including the AKINCI, and has the capability to hit the target with pinpoint precision. It is the advanced version of the MAM-C and MAM-L, and we hope to see that it will be used effectively in operations soon. We have a surprise about the MAM-T as well. The first version is the laser-guided version, but efforts for more advanced versions are currently in progress. We hope to announce it by the end of this year.
The SUNGUR Portable Air Defense System is again the one that we will display for the first time. As you know, the serial production of SUNGUR has started, and it is currently under the delivery stage to our Armed Forces. Several firings have been realized successfully so far. In fact, one of our surprises at IDEF will be our laser-guided mini-missile (METE), with a range of 1 km. By launching these mini missiles over drones/UAVs with laser guidance, we will be providing our Special Forces and other elements of our Armed Forces with the ability to hit targets with pinpoint accuracy, especially in residential area conflicts. The related tests are being conducted on the UAV, and generally unguided missiles are used. The difference between our system and others is the ability to hit the target with pinpoint precision through the Laser Designator on the UAV. Our missiles will be guided missiles and will have the ability to destroy any target at a distance of up to 1 km. ROKETSAN developed it as a whole system and will make it available to our Armed Forces as a whole system, not as a missile only.
We have a missile that we developed at the end of last year and this year as a result of the difficulties we faced during the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. As you know, the guidance systems in our 230 mm missiles were in particular GPS and coordinate dependent. We rendered them laser-guided and they were then used by the Azerbaijan Army for the first time during the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict and very successful results were obtained. This will also be unveiled at IDEF. Meanwhile, the TRG-222, the smaller version of the TRG-230 was also rendered laser-guided, and we will also display it at IDEF. Another product we will display is the Range Correction Kit. Range corrections will be accomplished with the systems to be mounted on the 155 mm ammunition used by FIRTINA K/M Howitzers, thus allowing 155 mm ammunition to fall inside a 50-meter CEP with a more effective hit capability. This is a product we are currently working on and continuing to develop for our Armed Forces. We will develop this further in the next stages. It will initially be put into use as a range correction kit, and afterwards we will make much more advanced versions available to our Turkish Armed Forces. In fact, there will be several systems at our booth, you will see them tomorrow, but these are the products we will display for the first time this year...”
In his speech, İKİNCİ briefly touched upon the products they planned to feature at IDEF'21 Fair and shared the following information:
“As it is known, we have the HİSAR Air Defense System. We have successfully accomplished the delivery of the first HİSAR-A+, and it is currently in the inventory of our Armed Forces. The development tests of HİSAR-O and HİSAR-O+ are still in progress. We will be delivering them soon. We have the ALKA Directed Energy Weapon System. ALKA is a system which enables the protection of critical facilities especially against drone attacks with the laser weapon and incorporates both the jamming feature and the hard-kill feature. The difference of ALKA, which we will exhibit at IDEF, from the ALKA we previously announced is that it has the 'Network Enabled Capability/NEC', and thus multiple ALKAs now have the ability to communicate with each other and hit targets in a coordinated manner. This will introduce a technology that will allow 2 or 3 ALKAs to direct their laser weapons on a single target simultaneously.”
İKİNCİ made the following evaluations regarding the significance of domestic and national technology in the projects they have realized:
“As we are all aware, Turkey is currently under an unspecified sanction and we are striving to develop our national and domestic systems as quickly as possible in consequence of this sanction. We have achieved significant progress so far. We believe we can proceed much faster from this time forth as many years of effort on several fundamental technologies are producing good results. ATMACA is one of the most important of these. Again, the AKYA Heavy Torpedo is a system that very few countries in the world can develop, a system that can be launched from a submarine. The fact that it was developed and produced with domestic means is quite encouraging as to the level that the Turkish Defense Industry has reached. AKYA, which can be used against submarines and surface ships, will also be a platform with more superior features than its advanced versions, not only with its sonar seeker head, but also with wake-homing sensors that are sensitive to the sound and motion of the ships’ propellers. The number of countries in the world that can develop this platform is quite limited. ROKETSAN has already achieved this. Unfortunately, there is no place where you can find them ready without accomplishing the fundamental technologies, from the engine to the electrical systems, from the warhead to the active/passive sonar head, to the electronic control systems. That’s why domestic and national technology is indispensable for us.”
İKİNCİ also shared the following regarding ROKETSAN's perspective on R&D and its export strategy:
“ROKETSAN is a technology company and the 3rd largest R&D company in Turkey. It is a company that develops entirely through R&D and transforms technology into products with solutions developed by its own engineers. That's why we position ROKETSAN as a technology company, not just on the ammunition side, smart guided munitions and missile/rocket systems side. For this reason, ROKETSAN is a company that brings together navigation systems, seekers, platform integration capabilities, space systems, submarine systems, all under one umbrella and invests in fundamental technologies and strives to assure the future with the investments it has made in such fundamental technologies. It is a quite strategic and prominent company in Turkey, where many of the products currently used by our Armed Forces are developed and produced. ROKETSAN does not act only in line with the demands made to it. There is a serious internal R&D resource. The MAM-C, MAM-L and MAM-T, and all of the others were implemented with projects developed by internal resources and made available to the Armed Forces.
Most of the R&D activities have already turned into products. For this reason, we have adopted an extremely serious export strategy in recent years. Our export activities continue increasingly, but in fact one of our most important goals is to take a key position in international markets. We revised our 5-Year Strategic Plan to that end and set quite critical targets in this strategic plan. The international favor shown to ROKETSAN also supports this. It is necessary to consider this from the perspective that the majority of ROKETSAN’s exports are realized over its existing products. The trade potential of the systems, which were introduced into the market in the last 1 year and to be introduced within the next 1 year, is very high. Hopefully, this trade potential will be achieved beginning next year, because we are currently conducting negotiations regarding this. This is of vital importance for us in terms of its huge export potential for our country and in regard to the resources that ROKETSAN will need in the next growth stage.”
ROKETSAN General Manager Murat İKİNCİ and ROKETSAN Chairman of the Board Prof. Faruk YİĞİT answered questions from members of the press about the projects and products in the Q&A session.
NOTE: You can find an compherensive Q&A session in below link...
