At a very rapid pace, Turkey has become dependent on local production in a large and important part of its requirements in the military industries after it was almost completely dependent on the outside, amid wide ambitions to achieve self-sufficiency and depend entirely on local production by the year 2023.
The Turkish government has succeeded in accomplishing the first domestic satellite monitoring and observation, and it will be sent into space next year.
The Turkish Technological Sciences Foundation announced the evening of yesterday, Thursday, that the defense ministers, Khulusi Akar, Industry and Technology, Mustafa Wrank, Transport and Infrastructure, Adel Qara Ismailoglu, supervised the installation of the last part of the satellite - which is named "Imja" - at the Foundation's headquarters in the capital, Ankara.
A local satellite The local satellite is
characterized by high monitoring accuracy, and its production is an important step towards meeting the needs of Turkey in civil and military high-resolution images.
The Turkish Minister of Defense said that the production of the local satellite came with the encouragement of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stressing that the Turkish defense industries have been able to achieve great achievements in recent years.
While Turkish advertisements have continued throughout the past years on the manufacture of machine guns, missiles, tanks, various military vehicles, warships, combat helicopter gunships, and offensive marching planes such as Bayrakdar and Akenji, work is under way to manufacture a huge aircraft carrier, war fighter and missile defense systems.
Regarding Turkey’s announcement of its production of the Imiga satellite, the former head of Military Intelligence at the Turkish Defense Ministry, Ismail Hakki said, “This satellite is very important for Turkey, as it can take high-resolution images from a high and far distance, and it also has the ability to take direct pictures ".
In a special interview with Al-Jazeera Net, the military expert pointed out that "the satellite will be important in the fight against terrorism and intelligence issues, and since it will be of high accuracy in taking pictures, it will be able to display and show very small things even if they are one person, and this will give preference to Turkey." ".
He added, "This satellite will be used in the military field in order to know what are the objects and things that are in a place. Turkey will also use it for civilian purposes to find out the identity and location of suspects by planting suspicious objects by seeing them from above, so that the concerned authorities can take the necessary measures early." .
Hakki said that Turkey already owns a satellite, but the "Imja" satellite is more important than it, because it will be used for military purposes, and it will also be used for civil and agricultural purposes, as it is intended for preventive purposes to protect from natural disasters.
Vision 2023
Since the Justice and Development Party came to power, it has made defense industry development a long-term goal, and with direct follow-up from President Erdogan, about 70% of this sector has become locally manufactured, compared to 20% when Erdogan came to power in 2003.
This boom comes in implementation of the aspirations of the National Development Plan "Vision 2023", in which public and private companies contribute a large share, by investing heavily in research and development activities, and supporting the efforts of the Turkish government to diversify its products in the defense industry.
Turkish ambitions do not stop there. Rather, Ankara aims to export defense defense products worth more than $ 5 billion during 2020, and to raise the ceiling of its defense and space exports to $ 25 billion annually by 2023, supported by untiring efforts by Turkish companies to develop combat systems and targeted weapons.
Over the past five years, Turkey has been able to export weapons, drones and high-tech defense vehicles to the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.
The province of Qireq has also become one of the most important centers of defense industries in Turkey, including the Chemical and Mechanical Industries Corporation (MKEK) and private sector investments in the first industrial zone specialized in weapons manufacturing, established in the state in 2014.
Global rankings
The Turkish defense industry continues to consolidate its position in the list of the best hundred companies producing weapons and military equipment worldwide.
Four giant Turkish companies were able to enter the list of American "Defense News" magazine, which annually ranks the best hundred international companies in the field of defense industries.
The Turkish company, Aslan, ranked 52nd in the list this year, while the Turkish Air and Space Industries Company (Tusac) ranked 69th in the ranking.
As for the company "STM" for engineering, design and modernization of marine military equipment, drones, space technology and radar, it continued its progress and entered the American magazine classification last year from the 97th place, and this year it managed to jump 12 centers and ranked 85th.
Also, the Roketsan company specialized in the manufacture of missiles and missiles, entered the rankings in the world rankings, ranked 89th, with a budget estimated at 522 million dollars.
Besides, the Turkish defense and space industry is still facing some of the challenges monitored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISs), such as the devaluation of the lira, and the specter of the economic recession.
And if the economic slowdown worsens, Turkey will inevitably have to review defense expenditures and other costly government programs, and Turkish ambitions will run into difficulties impeding its path to almost triple the number of workers in the defense industry, according to the institute.
Significant benefits In
addition to the major economic and military benefits, the industrial boom will contribute to achieving the objectives of Turkey's foreign policy, which is no less ambitious, according to the former head of military intelligence at the Ministry of Defense, Ismail Hakki.
Hakki told the island that Turkey has been working for a long time in the development of defense industries, and has made great progress in recent years, and great incentives have been offered, especially in the field of national defense and national weapons.
He added that there has been a great investment in both the private sector and institutions affiliated with the armed forces such as Aselsan and Roketsan, as well as in the field of drones in the civil sector, and thanks to this investment and support we have achieved a great accumulation to this day.
Hakki pointed out that Ankara is seeking to develop strong relations with regional and global arms importers in order to diversify its markets.
Industrial revolution
The last decade witnessed a giant revolution in the consumer industries, especially with regard to food products and tools, and in the fields of marine industries and export of minerals and steel, furniture and furnishings, among others.
Without oil, natural gas or even precious minerals, Turkey achieved a record number last year in the value of its exports, which exceeded $ 180 billion, and plans to raise it to $ 190 billion by the end of 2020.
Industrial production is the most important supplier of hard currency, as Turkey has already started production of its national car with 100% local technology early this year, while the revenues of manufacturing and exporting cars and their parts in 2019 amounted to nearly 32 billion dollars.
In 2019, the HSBC Holdings Group ranked Turkey seventh in the world, as the best country to live and work, while its army maintained its position at the forefront of the region's armies, and the tenth strongest in the world.
Today Turkey generates about 46% of its energy needs from renewable energy projects to invest in solar and wind energy, and is looking to raise it to 56% by 2023.
It also established ambitious projects in the states of Edirne and Fethiye to produce energy from waste recycling, as well as the Aq Aqyu nuclear plant that was laid the foundation stone in Mersin in 2018.
In the field of technology, the number of TechnoParks centers - which includes Turkish technology companies - increased from two centers in 2001 to 84 centers in 2019 distributed over 56 Turkish cities.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also revealed that his country intends to launch its local communications satellite "Torxat 6A" in 2022, and the new satellite is distinguished by the fact that the crew supervising its manufacture is from the Turks, and it is equipped with pure local capabilities.