Turkey will be one of the fastest growing defense industries in the world, a bureaucrat says.

- 11 / 05 / 2008 13:01

A Turkish bureaucrat expressed his belief on Sunday that Turkey would be one of the fastest growing defense industries in the world.

Murad Bayar, the undersecretary of Turkish Defense Industry, said that Turkish defense industry would be one of the fastest growing defense industries in the world in a few years.

"We will fulfil many critical projects in a few years," Bayar told Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent.

Bayar also said Turkey would start meeting half of needs of Turkish Armed Forces with domestic sources in one or two years.

 According to figures of 2006, almost 42 percent of needs of Turkish Armed Forces is met by domestic sources.

Bayar said that Turkey had decided to launch negotiations with Russia's Rosoboronexport firm for medium-range modern anti-tank project, and noted that Turkey and Russia could have a long-term cooperation in defense industry.

Also, Bayar said that Turkey met half of its mobile air defense system need through tenders and the rest by domestic production. "We are having talks with four countries including Russia for a long-range high-altitude air defense system," he told the AA.

Bayar said Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) would be the only satellite center of Turkey.

One of the main tasks of the undersecretariat is to re-organize and integrate the existing national industry so as to satisfy defence industry requirements, encourage new enterprises and channel them according to the integration and requirements, seek possibilities for foreign capital and technology contribution, guide enterprises and make plans for state participation in this respect.

Over the last 21 years since its establishment, and as a result of dedicated efforts, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries has made real achievements in the creation of a modern national defense infrastructure in Turkey, with highly successful results in certain vital areas.

Key defense industrial institutions have been established to meet the requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces through local sources, each of which fill an important gap in their scope of activity.

Turkish defence industries are now able to manufacture authentic products and have a wide research and development programme in which main supporter is the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).

 The Turkish defense industry earned about 352 million USD from its exports in 2006, and is forecast to have an annual export figure of 1.5 billion USD within three years.