Turkey will Have Critical Technologies with KEMENT Program

This project was launched by the Defence Industry Executive Committee’s Decree in 2005 and then entered into force in 2010 with TÜBİTAK’s resources.Following the issuance of the call for tender in 2012, the evaluation of the proposals was finalized in December 2013 and the signature of the contract phase arrived. Undersecretary for Defence Industries Murad Bayar, General Manager Murat Erciyes on behalf of Meteksan Defence - the main contractor of the Project, President of the Bilkent University Prof. Abdullah Atalar, representatives of MilSOFT, TÜBİTAK-Sage, TÜBİTAK UAEKE and Roketsan-the sub-contractors of the Project and commanders of the Naval and Air Forces Command attended the signing ceremony held at the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries’ premises. 

Meteksan Defence General Manager Murat Erciyes stated in his speech at the ceremony that the KEMENT Project started in 2005 and their company was involved in the Project later in 2009 and continued,“This Project has been activated within a period of five years. I believe that the program shall contribute greatly to Turkey, stakeholders and platform manufacturers as Turkey will be activating a national data band in a long range. Second important fact is that even though the final configurations may seem to appear different than each other as there are two different platforms, in reality we are speaking of a direct data band for long-range flights in terms of design components. In my opinion this is significant in terms of cost-efficiency and sustainability”. Undersecretary for Defence Industries Murad Bayar stressed that they demonstrated that system engineering works could be accomplished in Turkey and said, “Turkey proved that all sorts of land vehicles, naval platforms and unmanned aerial vehicles could be realized in Turkey in terms of system engineering. Yet this is not enough. If we lack to accomplish dominance in critical technologies, we fail to own these platforms. We have a great effort in this path. Our R&D department launched 21 significant projects. An investment of approximately 1 billion US$ has been made in defence industry. We now have brand products and platforms. Yet we still need to acquire critical technologies. This is a brand new stage for us and we have to fully use Turkey’s engineering and academic capacity for success and for providing the technological depth we aim to have”. 

First Phase of the Project to be Accomplishedin 38 Months

KEMENT Project that will be executed by Meteksan Defence as the main contractor and TÜBİTAK Sage-Roketsan as main sub-contractors shall be conducted in two phases. The total budget of the Project is 26. 549.000 US$ and two different studies namely KEMENT-S and KEMENT-A are to be executed within the first phase of the project that is determined to be accomplished in 38 months. Within the scope of the first study named KEMENT-S, development of2 MVAS SOM Terminals (MST) that could be integrated to Air to Ground Medium Range Missile (SOM) and 2 MVAS Aerial Vehicle Terminals (MHT) that could be integrated to F-16 platforms is aimed. 

KEMENT-A Phase contains the development of an Atmaca Data Terminal (AVT), a Vessel Data Terminal (GVT) and a Relay Data Terminal (RVT) unit that could be integrated to the Naval Surface to Surface Guided Missile (Atmaca) and to the related platforms included in the usage scenario of Atmaca having the capacity to operate under relative environmental conditions. Within the scope of Phase-1, main contractor Meteksan Defence shall be responsible for the establishment of the network architecture, development of Physical Layer, Antenna, Modem and RF solutions. One of the sub-contractors MilSOFT shall conduct the activities for DLP (Data Link Processor), TÜBİTAK UEKAE crypto module and MHT’s integration to F-16 platform together with the 1st Air Supply Maintenance Command, Roketsan and TÜBİTAK Sage. Following the accomplishment of the first phase, activities within the scope of Phase-2shall be launched if approved by the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries. 

KEMENT is going to provide command-control solutions to different operators with a range from minimum 250km.

With the system developed within the framework of the KEMENT Project, operational efficiency shall be increased via components that areresistant to electronic warfare, encrypted, adaptable to power requirements of the platform its embedded to, compatible with the military standards and NATO STANAGs shall be achieved and updating the data related to the target and command-control information shall be enabled within the air-air and air-ground components’ network structure within a range from minimum 250km. Development of an Ammunition Data Network System (MVAS) that could support the 512kbps data transfer speed and transmit an image of sufficient resolution before the shooting during the ammunition’s terminal stage is aimed. 

The Project also includes the development of terminals that could operate on SOM and Atmaca which were developed through national capacities and on platforms that could be used in the command/control of the ammunition (F-16, helicopters and vessels) and design of a network architecture that is specific to the usage concept.