At a signing ceremony at the Eurasia Airshow on the 25th of April, UTC Aerospace Systems signed a wide memorandum of understanding with Alp Aviation covering much of the company’s Sensors & Integrated Systems business unit. As part of the agreement, the two companies will cooperate to begin phased production of components within UTC Aerospace Systems’ Kidde Dual Spectrum automatic fire/explosion suppression (AFES) systems for military ground vehicles at Alp Aviation’s campus in Eskisehir, Turkey. By providing a localized product that meets Turkish requirements, the two companies will work together to support Turkish original equipment manufacturers building military ground vehicles for the Turkish military, including the Turkish Land Forces. 

Fitted on more than 275,000 vehicles in 20 countries, the AFES system comprises extremely fast and highly accurate Dual Spectrum sensors that detect fires and explosions in zones such as crew areas and mechanical compartments. The AFES extinguishers are equipped with high-speed valves to immediately flood affected compartments with efficient and approved extinguishing agents. Typical reaction times from detection to full suppression are within milliseconds. Fire or explosions caused by rounds penetrating the vehicle are effectively suppressed by this near-instantaneous response. 

Work is expected to begin at Alp’s Eskisehir facility in the coming months. The Turkish military ground vehicle market includes roughly 850 vehicles built each year.

“We’re excited to announce our partnership with Alp Aviation, covering numerous product lines across the Sensors & Integrated Systems business unit,” said Mark Skarohlid, Vice President of Business Development for Sensors & Integrated Systems at UTC Aerospace Systems. “Our portfolio of products and the capabilities of Alp Aviation are well aligned to serve Turkey’s domestic markets.” 

“We look forward to building on our relationship with Alp Aviation,” said UTC Aerospace Systems Kidde General Manager Erin McCleave. “We welcome the opportunity to explore areas of cooperation between Kidde Aerospace & Defence and Alp, including the military ground vehicle market as well as aerospace markets.”

“We are proud of this accomplishment and to further strengthen our relationship with UTC Aerospace Systems. We will continue to work hard in bringing the most up-to-date technology to Turkey and increasing our work share with additional projects,” said Senay Idil, General Manager, Alp Aviation. 

“With this project, it is targeted to produce and export these products with an increasing domestic added value. Having a wide range of implementations including land, air and marine vehicles as well as commercial vehicles, intelligent buildings and industrial structures; a technological achievement would be attained in this field with the domestic production, with after-sales support and export of the fire prevention systems being one of the longer-term targets of this partnership. 

“Localization of the system together with the local subcontractors and business partners will provide substantial gains for our country and sector. We have demonstrated our ability and are committed to meeting UTC Aerospace Systems’ high quality, cost and delivery standards. We have achieved this by investing in not only manufacturing technologies, but our people. As a company, we are eager to support UTC Aerospace Systems capitalize on significant growth opportunities.”