Aselsan Wins Turkish Tank Protection System Contract

Military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey’s biggest defense firm, said Nov. 30 it has signed a $54 million contract with the Turkish government to produce and deliver an indigenous system designed to protect tanks and armored vehicles from anti-tank rockets and missiles.

The AKKOR system is designed to protect the indigenous Altay main battle tank and other armored vehicles from anti-tank rockets and missiles.

Since 2008, Aselsan has been developing what it dubs the “Active Protection System,” known by its Turkish acronym AKKOR. The company has been testing the system’s radar, mission computer and ammunition.

AKKOR is designed to detect tank-targeting rockets and missiles and hit them in midair, Aselsan said. The system is designed for the Altay, a new-generation battle tank Turkey has been developing, but it can also be fitted to various types of armored vehicles.

“This is a capability few armies in the world possess,” the company said. 

The system provides tanks and other vehicles with a 360-degree shield of protection. The sensors in the system are designed to work like “mini radars,” Aselsan said.

Turkey-China $3.44 Billion T-LORAMIDS Deal Scrapped Due To NATO Concern

Turkey has canceled a $3.4 billion long-range missile defense system tender which was provisionally awarded to China, a move that had stirred U.S. and Western concern, an official at the Turkish prime minister's office told Reuters on Sunday.

Chinese built HQ-9 Air Defense Missile System at "Victory Day Parade".

NATO member Turkey in 2013 had chosen China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp as the preferred candidate for the deal, sparking Western worries over inherent security risks from Chinese technology.

"It has been decided that this tender will be canceled," an official at Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office said. "This decision has been signed off by the Prime Minister this week."

An official from Turkey's Defense Industry Undersecretariat, which has run the technical negotiations with China, said in July that a major stumbling block has been China's reluctance to make a technology transfer which could give Turkey the knowledge to operate the system and eventually replicate it.

The prime ministry official said Ankara was now planning to go solo. "Turkey will now launch its own project to build such a defense system," he said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, asked about the tender being canceled, said on Monday he did "not have any knowledge on the relevant matter". He did not elaborate.

Turkey had given mixed messages on whether it was planning to integrate the system with NATO infrastructure or not and U.S. and European allies has wanted Turkey to use a system that is compatible with NATO's air defense.

During the tender, U.S. firm Raytheon put in an offer with its Patriot missile defense system. Franco-Italian group Eurosam, owned by the multinational European missile maker MBDA and France's Thales, came second in the tender.

Source:  Reuters 

TAI Gozcu: Turkish Observer Drone

TAI Gozcu is a short-range tactical reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition Unmanned Aerial System. 

Details regarding this UAS are as:

Manufacturer: TAI-TUSAS Aerospace Industries Inc.
Powerplant: 1x Wankel 38hp engine.
Dimensions: length: 2.45m, height: 0.66m, wingspan: 3.75m. 
Weight: MTOW 85kg, max payload 8kg.
Performance: speed 100kt, endurance > 2hr, ceiling up to 12,000ft. 
Payload: two-axis gimbaled EO/IR camera.
Data Link: real-time telemetry and video.
Guidance/Tracking: fully autonomous, GPS integrated waypoint navigation.
Launch: catapult launcher. 
Recovery: parachute or skid.
Structure Material: delta wing, v-tail, all-composite airframe.
Electrical Power: rechargeable battery pack.
Status: in production.

Critical design review for Aselsan TF-2000 frigate radar prototype nears completion

The X-band multifunction radar (MFR) testbed being developed by Ankara-based systems and sensor house Aselsan for Turkey's future TF-2000 air-defence frigate programme will achieve a key milestone in the coming months with the completion of its critical design review (CDR).

The CAFRAD (Çok Amaçli Faz Dizinli Radar) demonstrator is being built under a contract awarded by the Turkish Ministry of Defence's Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (Savunma Sanayii Müstesarligi - SSM) in May 2013.

Speaking to IHS Jane's at the IDEF exhibition in Istanbul on 5 May, an Aselsan spokesperson said the demonstrator, a scaled prototype that will serve to de-risk and demonstrate MFR technologies for the future TF-2000 air-defence frigate, began its CDR phase in September 2014 and this would complete in August.

TAI - TFX Ffth Generation Turkish Fighter: InfoGraphic Video

Turkish Defense Industry Undersecretary Murad Bayar dismissed

Turkish Defense Industry Undersecretary Murad Bayar has been dismissed.

Murad Bayar at his Office

A news agency of Azerbaijan reports that the decision on Bayar’s dismissal has been posted on the Resmi Gazette today.

The delegation led by Turkey’s Undersecretary for Defense Industry Murad Bayar planned to visit Azerbaijan on March 11, later the visit was postponed until April.

Bayar, who had been working at Undersecretariat for Defence Industries from 1989, was appointed as Defense Industry Undersecretary in 2004.

Turkish media reports that he is expected to be appointed either as Senior Advisor to the President or Ambassador to Canada.