Turkish Air Force Academy Joins the SAYP Program

Deputy Undersecretary for the Defense Industries Dr. Celal Sami Tüfekçi on behalf of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), TAI General Manager Mr. Muharrem Dörtkaşlı, Havelsan General Manager Mr. Ahmet Hamdi Atalay and the Commander of the Air Force Academy Major General Fethi Alpay attended the cooperation protocol ceremony held at the premises of the SSM. 

In his remark at the signing ceremony SSM’s Deputy Undersecretary Dr. Celal Sami Tüfekçi expressed that they previously signed contracts with nine universities, and today the Air Force Academy is included in this group, and adding that with this protocol signed with the Air Force Academy, a military Academy was included in the program for the first time. Stating that the goals set by the Turkish Defense Industry can be achieved merely by qualified human resources Dr. Tüfekçi said, “By deducting the post - graduate training in the Defense Industry from the companies’ off-set debts, we aim to establish an eco-system for the training of human resources”. 

Commander of the Air Force Academy, Major General Fethi Alpay also underlined the importance of training personnel and added that becoming a planner in addition to a user in the defense industry would allow them an important opportunity.  

Havelsan General Manager Mr. Ahmet Hamdi Atalay mentioned that by passing a threshold, the defense industry passed onto the indigenous product development stage. Mr. Atalay touched upon the importance of the R&D in this process and stated that this was not a task that can merely conducted by the defense associations and that the universities and research centers would also have to make contributions to such efforts. Mr. Atalay added that SAYP would contribute to the cooperation between industry and universities. 

TAI General Manager Mr. Muharrem Dörtkaşlı noted that SAYP’s signing with the Air Force Academy would have a positive reflection upon the user-contractor relationship. 

SAYP program was first launched with the cooperation protocols signed in October 2011between METUand SSM, Aselsan, Roketsan, and TAI; implementation started in 2012. Within the scope of the program, as of November 2015, a total of 36 researchers are employed in 30 projects. Efforts toward including Anadolu University, Bursa Technical University, Uludağ University, Yıldız Technical University and İstanbul University in the SAYP Program in the upcoming period are being exerted.