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the world. There are successful platform the past which in turn would put us decades
programs that were completed and are behind the contemporary science and
already in operation in the Armed Forces engineering.
and the Navy. However, they remain local
for the time being. Hence, marketing activity SMEs shall provide a sustainable
aiming at generating key accounts at state manufacturing infrastructure
level becomes a crucial approach to increase The Undersecretariat for Defense Industries
international sales. International politics (SSM) emphasizes the importance of close
is very important in international trade, collaboration among OEMs and suppliers.
especially when the defense sector is the This approach has its positive consequences
case. Having close political and economic in terms of ever increasing transfer of work
relations with another country does not load to qualified suppliers and service
always mean that you have an account at providers during the last ten years.
hand. Therefore, Ministry of Defense and
The Undersecretariat for Defense Industries It is apparent that Turkey had already come
(SSM) both assume great roles not only in a long way for the past forty years through
defining national strategies and roadmaps, manufacturing for import substitution. Even
but also in promoting our position in the though the production process was initially
international arena in terms of foreign sale. based on licensed equipment, both public
There is much to be accomplished in the enterprises and private sector companies
following decades. gained ground on technology based products
so far thanks to the considerable emphasis
Nationalization and Research and given to research and development. The
Development’s impacts on the sector... great achievements in the Turkish Defense
There exists a tremendous effort in the Turkish Industry are indeed based on considerable
defense industry for the last twenty years to investment in R&D infrastructure, and highly
ensure sustainability in R&D expenditures qualified and well educated personnel.
in order to accelerate indigenization. The
national corvette program, MİLGEM; self- Nowadays, we believe Turkey arrived at a
propelled howitzer, FIRTINA; low altitude new milestone where the core philosophy
self-propelled anti-aircraft defense system, shall be transformed fundamentally form
KORKUT; low and medium altitude air defense increasing local content ratio in national
missile system, HİSAR are only a few of the defense projects through local production to
successful programs that are completed innovative engineering solutions provided by
and set into operation recently. The success national R&D companies. The real success of
lies in the capability to ensure a thorough this philosophy lies in a new business model
integration of sub-systems for achieving a where the resources are allocated among
high performance end product. OEMs, R&D and engineering service suppliers
However, it should be kept in mind that a real and SMEs with respect to added value they
indigenization process starts with unique provide.
design and conceptual development of sub-
systems. In other words, critical sub-systems The new business model we propose positions
cannot be localized only by manufacturing SSM as the only procurement authority as it
in-house through technology transfer. On the is now. However, roles and responsibilities of
contrary, R&D investment on basic sciences OEMs are the major elements that will differ
and engineering is the key success factor for from the current situation. Regarding the
maintaining a long term solution in obtaining ever increasing competition among global
a sound ground for creating technology of platform suppliers, it would be unfair to
our own. Depending on foreign technology expect OEMs to become specialized in each
is nothing but utilizing the technology of and every sub-system level.

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