Turkish military electronics company grows in Kazakhstan

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

The picture shows the Stabilized Advanced Remote Platform (SARP) that Aselsan has developed for land use. The firm has signed a deal with Kazakhstan’s KE to broaden its strategic partnership and expand its market in the Central Asia countries. AA photo

The Turkish Military Electronics Company (ASELSAN) signed an agreement yesterday with Kazakhstan Engineering (KE) to broaden the strategic partnership between the two companies, at the Kazakhstan-Turkey Business Forum in Astana, the Anatolia News Agency reported.

The agreement includes plans to work on the modernization of armored vehicle fire-control systems and avionics systems for helicopters, as well as producing communication devices and systems. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov were in attendance at the signing ceremony. The defense firms aim to produce military supplies for countries in the Central Asian region as well as to meet the defense needs of Turkey and Kazakhstan.

KE is an umbrella institution that covers all of the 22 defense firms in Kazakhstan.

Defense firms cluster

In another step forward for the Turkish defense industry, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) has announced that it plans to go on the road to tradeshows in an effort to attract foreign defense firms, particularly from the United States, to join an aeronautics and aerospace sector “cluster” in Turkey’s capital city, Ankara, which would take advantage of the sweeping incentives scheme recently announced by the government.

Turkish air, land,
naval forces take part
in combined arms exercise

“There is work underway to create an aeronautics and aerospace cluster on a 3 million square-meter tract of land near the TUSAŞ premises in Ankara,” the general manager of TUSAŞ, Muharrem Dörtkaşlı, said on May 23, speaking at a meeting of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) and the Turkish-American Business Council. The plan is to bring together aeronautics and aerospace sub-industries around TUSAŞ, he said, according to Reuters. “We are trying to raise awareness [of the Turkish defense industry]. We will participate in shows to accomplish this beginning in the upcoming days. I believe the process will take two or three years.”