STM Thinktech organized THINKTECHONLINE online panel to discuss COVİD-19 and its aftermath in Turkey and the worlds as the development of the defence industry.

The panel was watched by almost 250 thousand people via STM ThinkTech social media accounts that it was broadcast live.

“Covid-19 process and after the Defence Industry in the World and Turkey,” Head of Defence Industry on the panel (SSB) Chairman Prof. Drİsmail Demir, Chairman and General Manager of ASELSAN Professor. DrHaluk Görgün, General Manager of TUSAŞ DrTemel Kotil, Director of SETA Security Research and Faculty Member of Ankara Social Sciences University Assoc. DrMurat Yeşiltaş and STM General Manager Murat İkinci shared their opinions.

Emphasizing that the country’s defence shows that it depends on a broader range of parameters from health to energy, SSB President Demir said, “Defence industry is a field where knowledge turns into production with technology and engineering. Pandemic, broadening the scope of defence with many other titles; He showed that we should continue this in different topics such as information, technology and product chain. Today the whole world is under attack with a pandemic. Now, we talk about many parameters such as infrastructure of a country, medical technology, resilience in chemical, biological, nuclear fields, communication system, cybersecurity, energy policies, power lines under the title of defence. The security of countries can now be threatened by the inadequacy of any of these parameters. For this reason, we also use our technological capabilities under the title of defence to produce solutions such as domestic and national respiratory equipment, MR imaging systems for the health sector. In our plans for the future of defence, our focus is; “Our knowledge, technology and qualified human resources in the defence industry will be used to make productions that will have a voice in the new security parameters worldwide”.

Expressing his views on the F-35 Program, Demir; “Our companies continue their production, orders continue to come. So, ‘I threw I cut the rope at once’ and ‘now I’m off to Turkey “is not so easy. They even took this decision on the contribution of the Turkish industry to this partnership, even though the US officials have talked about the performance of Turkish companies in a wide variety of settings, in terms of production quality, costs and lead times. Today we see that; Finding new manufacturers instead of these competent companies was not an easy process, and this pandemic process took this even further. We are at the point where we are again, and we continue our production partnership. Despite their attitude with the United States, we did not go to restitution, “We are also stopping production.” Because, if there is a partnership agreement and a path is taken, we believe that the partners who set out on this path should continue to do this faithfully. ”

ASELSAN Chairman of the Board and General Manager DrHaluk Görgün said, “The pandemic process showed us how important it is to work together and succeed together in the defence industry; It was understood the value and importance of more than one company working together in common national purpose. In this process, we have once again remembered the importance of applications, critical materials and equipment that will ensure critical infrastructures survive. The epidemic is self-sufficient; It revealed that companies without production, design, technological infrastructure, maintenance and repair systematics could not continue their activities. It was very important for large and leading industrial organizations to have a flexible and fast design-production infrastructure and to put this capability into action quickly when needed. “In this sense, our President of Defence Industry, Professor Ismail Demir emphasized, as ASELSAN, it will be our focus to evaluate our knowledge, technology and qualified human resources for the future of defence to make productions that will have a voice worldwide. I think that the domestic and national respiratory devices delivered to Başakşehir City Hospital with a hundred per cent local facilities and in only 14 days are a good example. “It is aimed to produce 5 thousand of the ventilators produced with the intense support of our Ministry of Health, Baykar, Arçelik, ASELSAN, Biosys and the Ministry of Industry, with the instruction of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.”

TUSAŞ General Manager DrTemel Kotil said, “We have taken exemplary steps in the defence industry with a series of precautionary packages that we have implemented as part of the normalization process we talked about before, during and during the epidemic. We quickly implemented all the measures taken by our health committee, which we established. We have transparently shared all the measures we have taken within our company by ensuring rapid coordination with both our colleagues and stakeholder organizations.

As a part of the defence industry ecosystem, we continue our production by adhering to the measures taken by our state and applying additional measures since the outbreak first appeared in our country. Like other elements that carry out essential duties in defence of our country, we continue with the intense efforts of our colleagues, who are developing locally and nationally, and the production activities we continue within our structural group. We are continuing the development of our 5th generation fighter aircraft, one of the most significant projects in our country and one of the world’s leading technologies, without interruption. We continue our work with our extensive precautions to avoid falling back during all the hours of workmanship we plan to deliver our projects at the time we commit. ”

SETA Security Research Director and Ankara Social Sciences University Faculty Member Assoc. DrMurat Yeşiltaş said, “The Covid-19 outbreak caused a complete shock for the whole world. The crisis has reignited the “world order” debates, which has long been one of the critical issues in international politics. Some estimate that the outbreak will create a new world order led by China; others argue that the leadership of the USA will trigger the disappearance. Some say that the outbreak will end globalization, as well as those who hope that it will start a new era for global cooperation. Also; The outbreak is expected to strengthen nationalism on a global scale, weakening global trade networks and lead to regime changes in various countries.

Korona epidemic Turkey has exacerbated the challenges it faces and after corona by dealing with these challenges in the world for a comprehensive strategic vision to reposition Turkey, this vision will be spent on strengthening the tools to implement and ultimately to that vision of life needs a comprehensive roadmap has.” commented.

STM General Manager Muratkinci said: “The epidemic showed us the importance of producing local and national solutions in a broader perspective in the defence industry to overcome global problems. In the panel organized by STM ThinkTech, we gained forecasts that will shape the future of both our industry and our country’s defence capability with the valuable opinions of the leaders of our defence industry. As STM; We become part of the solution with our cybersecurity solutions and decision support systems during the epidemic process. On the other hand, our deliveries continue as planned in military, marine platforms and autonomous drone systems projects, which are extremely critical for the defence of our country. In this period, we continue to offer the comprehensive cybersecurity support needed by public institutions. As the defence sector; We aim to be one of the leading countries in the world with our knowledge and technology and defence technology solutions that will meet the new security needs that emerge from health to energy and communication. ”