Turkey Has Independent Defense Industry, President Erdoan: Global Gangs Are Trying To Make Us Dependent

JAKARTA - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country could have a defense industry that was independent of "global gangs", in a meeting.

"We have raised our defense industry to the giant leagues, even though global gangs have tried to make us dependent on them", President Erdogan said at a meeting of the Confederation of Civil Service Trade Unions (Memur-Sen) in Istanbul, citing Yenisafak November 15.

President Erdogan further explained that Turkey has drones, armed drones, and Akinci unmanned aerial combat vehicles.

In addition, President Erdogan stressed that their efforts to raise the standard of Turkey's democracy were sabotaged through provocations, demands for a coup, and political assassinations, but Turkey has never bowed to any of them.

"We have never succumbed to internal or external pressure. We have strengthened our democracy despite the threat of coups and surveillance. We have grown our economy even though a handful of elites have made a habit of getting rich without working", he stressed.

Separately, citing Anadolu Agency's Daily Sabah, Turkey's defense industry has initiated important projects in recent years under the leadership of the Defense Industries Presidency (SSB), which includes a great foundation in its mission to reduce the country's dependence on others and become a major competitor in among the world's largest arms exporters.

The head of the SSB Ismail Demir, speaking on the 36th anniversary of the founding of the SSB, told Anadolu Agency (AA) some time ago, the agency became the official state body during the Republican era, after the state faced many internal and external obstacles.

Demir stated that the Turkish defense industry continues to work in the land, air, sea, space, and cyber sectors for state security, stressing that the wealth of knowledge and industry experience in cutting-edge technologies helps make important contributions to studies in civilian areas including health, energy, and transportation.

Noting that the defense industry has reached a certain level in terms of design, development, and production of weapons platforms and systems after experiencing breakthroughs in recent years, Demir said: "We are one of the world's leading countries in some areas, developing competitive products in others".

"However, we have always said, our goal is complete independence in the defense industry. In other words, we need to have any technology that is important and strategic", the defense official said.

Demir stressed that until five years ago Turkey had no air defense system to speak of. But today, Turkey has Korkut, Sungur, Hisar A+ and Hisar O+ systems.

"We produce MILGEM (National Ship), amphibious ships, seismic research vessels, ships and boats of various grades with domestic and national resources", he explained, noting the Atak-2 helicopters that recently joined the inventory of Turkish security forces.

"We have advanced a new era in missile technology with the precision TRLG with a range of 150 kilometers (93 miles), the Atmaca naval cruise missile with a range of 200 kilometers, and our Bora surface-to-ground missile with a range of 280 kilometers", he said.

In addition to the MAM-C and MAM-L smart munitions, Demir said his country has made its domestic unmanned aerial vehicle (UCAV) more effective with the addition of new munitions such as Teber, MAM-T, KGK, HGK, and LGK.

"We have made significant progress not only in drone systems but also in anti-drone technology. We provide practical solutions to our soldiers in the field with portable ammunition systems, ergonomic grenade equipment, collapsible mine detectors, and effective mixing systems. against improvised explosive devices (IEDs)".

To note, Turkey carried out 62 defense projects in 2002, highlighting that Turkish defense companies are currently working on about 750 projects.

Noting that Turkey started about half of these projects in the last five years, Demir said they increased the project volume from US$5.5 billion to more than US$60 billion.