Hande Atılgan / Ankara – Aselsan General Manager Ahmet Akyol, on the comments comparing Turkey’s “Sky Dome” air defense system with Israel’s Iron Dome, said, “It is nothing less than the Iron Dome.” “The goal is to spread it throughout the country,” he said. Saying “We must learn to sell as well as making” in defense industry production, Akyol listed those items that will boost exports.
In the 5th term training of SAHA Istanbul’s SAHA MBA program, which aims to train leaders for the sector, the first lesson was given to senior bureaucrats and sector leaders by Aselsan General Manager Akyol.
Explaining the air defense system, which is collected under the name “Sky Dome” from very low altitude to its farthest range, Akyol said, “Many major systems such as radars, command and control systems, communication systems and shooting platforms work together in the air defense cycle. “Aselsan has specialized systems for each field,” he said.
On the question comparing Turkey’s air defense system project with Israel’s Iron Dome, Akyol said, “I cannot name a specific issue that makes Iron Dome stand out more than us and where we can say ‘There is something we are missing here’.” Partly due to the situation of that geography, the activities there came to the fore. “It is a goal for us to spread this throughout Turkey, expand it a little more and complete the installations in the coming period, but I can say that we have gained serious competence,” he said.
PRECISION PRODUCTION
Stating that air defense system projects were included in the competition leg of Teknofest for the first time this year in order to develop this field, Akyol also drew attention to the need to develop precision production.
Regarding the question regarding the need in engineering capacity, Akyol said, “We are a company that has provided many products to the field. I see maybe 20 types of Aselsan products in a base area. I see that there are meaningless projects when our engineers do not go to the field. Studies that support quality and growth in production are a significant deficiency. We cannot find enough producers in production with a high level of difficulty. We have 3 thousand 400 suppliers; It is more important to increase difficult production or improve quality rather than increasing the quantity. “There are maybe 50 manufacturers in mechanical production, but there are 2-3 manufacturers in precision mechanics,” he said.
4 YEARS ORDER OK
Emphasizing that it is necessary to learn to sell successful products as well as making them, Akyol said:
“Turkey’s export amount per kilogram is 1.4 dollars; For the defense industry, this is around 58-60 dollars. In Aselsan, it is around 2 thousand dollars. We are dealing with the most qualified side of technology. When we transfer this to the products that we have started mass production; seeker heads are at 12 thousand dollars per kilogram, our newly started UAV cameras are at 20 thousand dollars, nasal radars are at 30 thousand dollars, seeker heads and cameras and radar detectors are at 50 thousand dollars… It is the concrete example of Turkey producing the high added value we have always dreamed of. We want to be among the top 30 in the Defense Top 100 by the end of 2030. “We currently have an order that will last us 4 years.”
