Tag: Gokturk

Turkey to replace F-16s with local jets

Turkey eyes replacing F-16s with locally produced fighter jets by 2023, Turkey’s defense undersecretary said yesterday.

Turkish arms manufacturer TAI has signed a technical assistance deal with Swedish Saab on technical assistance to build a fighter jet that will replace the F-16s.

“We’re working on the conceptual design of a new fighter jet that will replace our F-16 fighters,” Defense Industry Undersecretary Murad Bayar said yesterday on the sidelines of the two-day International Air&Space Power (ICAP) Conference being held in Istanbul.

Recently, Turkish arms manufacturer TAI has signed a technical assistance deal with Swedish Saab on technical assistance to build a fighter jet, as Daily News reported.

Turkish officials have been in talks with Saab (and with Korean Aerospace Industries) to find the best modality for the ambitious project of building its own fighter since 2010 and 2011. In August 2011, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, signed a deal with TAI to carry out the conceptual design work for fighter and jet trainer aircraft Turkey hopes to build.

In recent months a Turkish delegation, including SSM officials, visited Saab headquarters and production facilities in Sweden. And more recently, TAI and Saab penned a preliminary agreement for technical assistance which will pave the way for a subsequent support deal.

In yesterday’s statements, Bayar said the project of designing a local fighter began last year and after some trials one of the designs has matured.

After completing the design phase, the undersecretary will make an offer on developing a fighter to the Defense Industry Executive Committee, the highest defense procurement body of Turkey, which includes Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz, Chief of the Turkish General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel, as well as Bayar himself.

Recalling that Turkey had been one of the partners in the multinational Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) consortium that builds F-35 fighters, Bayar said the roles of the new model to be developed and the F-35 would be different. Therefore, new fighters will be configured as air-to-air planes and they will complement each other with F-35s.

Defense sources had told to Daily News that the program was exposed to the risk of a prolonged conceptual design and this would make the whole project “not very meaningful.”

ANKA to be developed

Meanwhile, asked about how Turkey’s recently launched Göktürk-2 satellite would serve the Turkish Armed Forces, Bayar said the satellite would provide intelligence to Turkey by taking photos of certain regions, which will be used in the operational plans of the army. The first visuals have already arrived, he said.

In addition, he said Turkey also had ambitious plans to develop and upgrade its unmanned aircraft, ANKA.

“The new ANKA will be 4 tons, [the current model is 1.5 tons] and its carrying power, capabilities and sensors will be developed accordingly,” Bayar said, stressing that this would be one of the most important projects of the upcoming period.

via SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY – Turkey to replace F-16s with local jets.

April 6, 2013
Video: Turkey’s spy sat to zoom in on Israeli secrets

Israel’s politicians and military have a new headache to worry about. High resolution photos of the country’s territory, which are currently unavailable to the public, may soon turn up in the hands of any of its many enemies.

Until now, only the Americans had the technology capable of taking satellite images greater than two meters per pixel resolution, and American law stopped US companies from distributing the pictures. Washington shares Israel’s security concerns and abides by the wishes of its key Middle East ally.

This means even with Google Earth one can zoom into Israel only so far, explains Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University. “If you try to look at specific parts of Israel, many of them will come out blurrier than any other place in the world that I have checked,” he told RT.

But that is about to change. Turkey is putting the finishing touches to a military satellite it plans to launch within the next two years. The Gokturk satellite will be capable of taking the very pictures Tel Aviv does not want distributed, and there are no American-style legal qualms in Turkey about upsetting its photo-sensitive neighbor.

“Turkey could sell directly or indirectly some of these imageries to enemies of Israel,” explains Mohammed Najib, defense analyst at Jane’s Defense Weekly.

Such a prospect is especially unnerving for Israelis now, because tensions between Tel Aviv and Ankara are at an all-time low. An aid flotilla attempt on Gaza two years ago that left nine Turks dead, and Ankara’s expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, has Tel Aviv nervously weighing its options.

The irony is that not so long ago the Gokturk satellite would have spelt good news for Israel. The two countries co-operated extensively, especially sharing military intelligence. But whereas once turkey was Israel’s closest ally in the Muslim world, today Ankara is increasingly asserting itself as a powerful player in its own right.

“Turkey is trying to say that Israel will not be granted special service or relations that it used to have. They are saying that the eastern Mediterranean is not the playing ground of Israel, there are different countries, everyone should abide by the same laws,” says Dr Nimrod Goren, Middle East politics expert, who focuses on Turkish-Israeli relations.

One satellite is barely enough to put Israel’s picture-shy world in a spin. But this is not a country that wants its neighbors knowing its business, especially with an Arab world in flux, and Israel fast losing former friends.

via Turkey’s spy sat to zoom in on Israeli secrets — RT.

January 3, 2012
China to launch Turkey’s first intelligence satellite in December

The Göktürk satellite will also be used for monitoring civilian activities such as control of forestland, tracking illegal construction.

China will launch Turkey’s first intelligence satellite, Göktürk-2, for $20 million since Turkey lacks the required technology to launch the satellite. Göktürk-2, which will be capable of detecting the movements of objects smaller than even one square meter, will help capture terrorists infiltrating Turkish borders.

The optical camera for the satellite has been bought from South Korea, while all the other parts have been produced and manufactured in Turkey. Göktürk is expected to be launched in December or in early 2012.

The Göktürk satellite will also be used for monitoring civilian activities such as control of forestland, tracking illegal construction, rapid assessment of damage after natural disasters, determination of agricultural boundaries and geographical data gathering. The project also aims to furnish national industries with the capability to design and integrate satellite systems and run tests on them here in Turkey.

Turkish defense industry companies and research centers Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), Aselsan, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and Turksat will participate in all phases of the project. The project consists of the construction of an electro-optic satellite system that will be put into orbit, a fixed land station and a mobile land station.

However, it is said that Israel is trying to block the launch of Göktürk-2, fearing that Turkey will be able to monitor Israel’s territory.

Cihan news agency

via China to launch Turkey’s first intelligence satellite in December | General | World Bulletin.

June 15, 2011