The Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) oversees Turkey's defense procurement and has been insisting for the past three years on a national policy on several key defense projects, with maximum emphasis placed on development and production by local industry, whenever possible.
In the case of advanced air platforms, where a national solution is impossible, the SSM's approach has been maximum Turkish contribution led by foreign partners.
Last month's annual reshuffle among Turkey's top military brass has brought with it unanimous anticipation for stronger military support to the country's thrivinglocal industry. Analysts agree that the new command line will back maximum national solutions in future programs.
The Supreme Military Council decided to appoint General Aydoğan Babaoğlu as commander of Turkey's Air Force and Admiral Muzaffer Metin Ataç as commander of the Navy. Chief of General Staff General Yaşar Büyükanıt and Land Forces Commander General İlker Başbuğ will remain in office for another year.
Local industry hails command line
Industry sources have welcomed the new command structure. "All of the new and future commanders have one policy in common: Full support for localindustry and national programs," said one senior industry official. "It is quite safe to predict an increase of local share in programs."
"The new command line features names that are familiar with Turkey's local industry efforts," the general manager of a local defense company said. "They allcome from a background of safeguarding indigenous programs."
The top generals' approach is in line with the SSM under its chief Murad Bayar.
Analysts agree that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's landslide victory in July's national legislative elections was also an indirect vote of confidence for Bayar and the SSM. "Erdoğan fully backs Bayar," said one analyst.
Finding optimum solutions
In defense procurement it might be difficult to find the optimal point between foreign purchases and acquisition from local sources. Two extreme examples are off-the-shelf purchases from abroad and full local development and production. Usually, the right balance is in between.
Generally the cheapest and quickest solution is buying a system directly from abroad. Local procurement of a new system, even if successful, is usually more expensive and takes considerably longer due to a painful process involving research, development, testing and manufacture. Indigenous solutions, if successful, offer major rewards, as the experience gained will have a spillover effect on the development of future systems.
Additionally, off-the-shelf foreign systems cater to the needs of others and may not exactly fit the requirements of a new buyer. Additionally, sellers of thosesystems usually attach conditions to their use.
"The general understanding prevalent in both the military top brass and the SSM is that no specific procurement program is extremely urgent, forcing us to buy it from abroad immediately," said one analyst.
One key example of SSM policies is Turkey's national main battle tank program. Although a South Korean tank will be used as a general model, the project is to be developed by indigenous industry.
High-tech systems another story
Bayar has been insisting on gaining key capabilities, including local production of mission computers for weapons systems. For helicopters, thatcomputer is a critical device coordinating the platform's avionic and electronic systems.
Currently, the military buys only about 25 percent of its overall procurement needs from local sources, and the aim is to raise this to over 35 percent in thenext 10 years.
In international deals, efforts to maximize local input work best in the case of commercial sales, in which the SSM launches a tender and Turkey selects themost suitable offer among foreign bids. For very high-tech systems, however, which include fighter aircraft and various missile types, Turkey's options are limited.
In government-to-government sales with the United States, for example, Turkey mostly needs to abide by the seller's export rules and regulations and cannot insist on changes. Such cases include Turkey's planned purchases of next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft and additional F-16 fighters, as well as an ongoing program to upgrade the Air Force's existing fleet of F-16s.
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Comments
And please.. lets not lose anymore valuable turkish engineers to 'tragic' accidents (i'm referring to the 3 brilliant turkish engineers who were killed 6 months ago under suspicious circumstances. They were believed to be working on a turkish missile defence system).