According to the news published in Aselsan Magazine's 107th issue at the beginning of November, the kick-off meeting was recently held for the HAKİM Project, to be realized as per the protocol signed between Aselsan and the HvKK in order to meet the requirements of the HvKK in the field of air command and control with domestic resources. According to Aselsan Magazine, Air Commodore Bekir Erdal ÖZGENÇ, Head of Air Defense and Command Control Department of HvKK and Aselsan Vice President Mustafa KAVAL also attended the kick-off meeting.

The HAKİM Air Command Control System will be the first air command control system developed with domestic resources in our country. In this way, Turkey will be amongst the few countries developing their own air command control system. With the HAKİM Air Command Control System, full integration will be achieved between all Command Control Centers at strategic, operational and tactical levels within the Turkish Air Force Command for all kinds of planning and transactions, and the air defense of our country will be controlled through a single system. The HAKİM Air Command Control System will be in full integration with NATO while also providing solutions to all multinational interoperability requirements.

Aselsan previously proposed the HAKİM Air Command Control System for the Azerbaijan Air Force and the contract for the first phase of the project to be implemented in phases, including the radar integration and the creation of an air picture, was signed during the ADEX 2018 Fair in September 2018. The Project aims for the command control of Azerbaijan’s air space and the integration of a total of nearly 70 air surveillance/early warning radar systems in 13 types procured from various countries such as Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Israel and Spain to all of the air Defense missile systems in different types (i.e. Russian origin [S-300 PMU2] and Israel origin [Barak 8]) across the country.

Within the scope of the related project, Aselsan proposed the new generation HAKİM Integrated Command Control System solution, which incorporates the capabilities of the Air Defense Early Warning Command Control System (HERIKKS) and Radar Network (RadNet), which has been successfully used by the Turkish Armed Forces for many years, but has superior strategic and operational capabilities than HERIKKS. However, on the HAKİM Integrated Air Defense Command Control System, custom software will run and since Azerbaijan is not a NATO Member Tactical Data Link systems that are similar to NATO will be used. In the project, Aselsan collaborates with Havelsan.

As part of the project, Azerbaijan Air Force bases were visited in 2018 and 2019, several installations were conducted and various tests were carried out. An Aselsan official, whom we had the chance to meet during the IDEF 19 Fair, pointed out that the infrastructure to be established within the scope of the HAKİM System is similar to the NATO MASSE System currently used by the HvKK, and the activities under the first phase, including the radar integration and the creation of an air picture, will be performed within 18 months (T0 + 18 months). 

Today, Aselsan is one of the few defense industry companies in the world that has the capacity to integrate NATO, Israeli and former Soviet-origin radars and weapon systems. It is expected that the know-how and experience gained from this project will be utilized for the integration of the S-400 Triumph Systems procured from the Russian Federation with the Turkish Air Force’s air defense radar and missile systems.