“Climbing up the hills” for decades to design Turkey’s national weapons ROKETSAN now runs on a “straight path”, having commenced serial production. As conveyed by ROKETSAN’s General Manager Selçuk Yaşar, the Company now focuses on high value-added business, attaches importance to design and integration, and produces mainly national products using indigenous resources in close collaboration with business partners and subcontractors. 

C4Defence: What is ROKETSAN’s capacity at the moment? What kind of new capabilities has the Company acquired within the year?

ROKETSAN General Manager Selçuk Yaşar: Many design projects were launched thanks to our Government’s support and the projects supplied by the SSM (Undersecretariat for Defense Industries) and the Ministry of National Defence between 2003-2004. We concluded our first export contract in 2005. Our many products have been qualified. I can argue that the Turkish defence industry is gradually approaching the plains. At that time, we were constantly engaged in design, thereby climbing up the hills; verification, qualification, subsystem development and numerous projects went hand in hand simultaneously. We have reached the apex and are currently proceeding in the plains. Product qualifications are finalised; therefore, we can produce them serially. At the moment we have at hand many products like UMTAS, OMTAS, TEBER and CİRİT. CİRİT, being the first of these, appeared in 2011. They all entered the stage of mass production. Soon, SOM-J will undergo the same process.  Eventually, the years between 2004 and 2014 can be described as period of development. Now we are in a position to discuss serial production and export. Turkish defence industry is moving from an era of development, design and qualification towards serial production. Now is time to meet requirements and reap the rewards of investments done. Hereafter, some of our products will enter serial production each year.