Turkish Defence Industry

Nations have been putting great efforts in developing their defence industry, and it is usually located in the centre of their internal and international policies. Increase in defence expenditures necessitate to create rational, durable and sustainable connections between defence and civil industries. Defence industry contributes to the development of absorptive capacity of a nation by promoting the high-end and unique discoveries and facilitating the process of learning. Today the current technological diffusion between defence and civil industries is two-sided and civil industries are increasing their share in knowledge generation compared to the past. Thus, dual-use applications become crucial for commercialization and utilization to achieve mutual growth. Main objective of this study is to bring light on three points: determination of the relations between defence and civil industries, the evaluation of defence industry’s effect on civil industries and the revealing of best practices for beneficial inter-industry collaboration. Methodology of this study is based on the qualitative approach. The research data is collected via qualitative semi-structured interviews that is conducted with twenty-one participants from three domestic target groups selected by quota sampling method. The data gathered from interviews are analysed through the data- driven coding process in three stages. This study includes up-to-date policy recommendations for strengthening the relationship between defence and civil industries based on rational analyses and best practice examinations for policymakers in Turkey. As a result, this study suggests five ways for establishing valuable relation mechanisms between industries and seven methods for updating defence industrial and technological base of Turkey.

Teknoloji her zaman olduğu gibi günümüzde de askeri alanda oyun değiştiren yeniliklere yol açabilmektedir. Doğru teknolojik yeni-liklerin doğru zamanda doğru şekil ve imkân dahilinde kullanıldı-ğında savaş literatürü alanında devrimlere yol açabileceğini ifade eden "Askeri Alanda Devrim (Revolution in Military Affairs, RMA) Hipotezi", günümüzde akademik anlamda önemini korumaya de-vam etmektedir. 2019 yılı sonları ve 2020 yılı içerisinde Suriye'de, Libya'da ve Azerbaycan'da dünya savaş literatürü yeni bir aske-ri alanda devrime sahne olmuştur. Bu askeri alanda devrim Türk savunma sanayii ve Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri'nin ortak başarısı ile hayata geçen "Sürü Silahlı İnsansız Hava Araçları (SİHA) Taarruzla-rı"dır. SİHA kullanımı ve taktik uygulamasında tartışmasız bir ba-şarı yakalayan Türkiye, dünya basınında da genişçe yankı bulmuş, askeri akademi camiasında büyük tartışmalara kapı aralamıştır. Bu çalışmada Askeri Alanda Devrim Hipotezi'nin altyapısı ve gün-cel tartışmaları bağlamında Sürü SİHA Taarruzları ele alınacaktır. Bu çalışmada literatürden elde edilen bilgiler, dünya çapında yapı-lan haber ve analizler ile Türkiye'nin savunma sanayii kapsamında teknolojik imkanları/SİHA envanteri bağlamında analiz edilmeye çalışılacaktır. Bu konunun yeni uygulama alanı bulmuş olması ve genel olarak SİHA kullanımına yönelik yapılan akademik çalışmala-rın az olması çalışmanın sınırlılıkları arasındadır. Bu çalışma, askeri alanda yeni bir kavram olan Sürü SİHA Taarruzu kavramını akade-mik olarak inceleyerek askeri yazına kazandırılmasını amaçlamıştır. Sürü SİHA Taarruz kavramının başarısı, moral üzerine etkisi, mali-yet etkinliği, yok ediciliği gibi modern savaş alanı ortamında gös-terdiği etkinliğin yeni bir RMA örneği olduğunu ortaya konularak RMA hipotezine olan katkısı çalışmanın temel bulgusu olmuştur.

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As always, technology can lead to game-changing innovations in the military field today. The "Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) Hypothesis", which states that the right technological innovations, when used in the right way and in the right order, can lead to revolutions in the field of war literature, which continues to maintain its academic importance today. The World's military literature has witnessed a new RMA in Syria, Libya and Azerbaijan in late 2019 and 2020. This RMA is the "Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs or Combat Drones) Pack Assaults" with the joint success of Turkish defense industry and Turkish Armed Forces. UCAV usage and tactical application that captures an undisputed success in Turkey, also widely found echo in the world press, has opened a way to major discussions for the military academy community. In this study, the UCAV Pack Assaults will be discussed in the context of the infrastructure and current discussions of RMA Hypothesis. In this study, information obtained from the literature, with news and analysis on the worldwide, technological capabilities within Turkey's defense industry/UCAV inventory will be analyzed. Among the limitations of the study are that this subject is relatively a new application area and that there are few academic studies on the use of UCAV in general. This study aimed to examine the concept of the UCAV Pack Assaults, which is a new concept in the military field, and bring it to military literature. Its contribution to the RMA hypothesis has been the main finding of the study, demonstrating that the effectiveness of the UCAV Pact Assault concept, such as its success on morale, cost effectiveness, and destructiveness, is a new example of RMA.

Das Bemühen der Türkei um eine stärkere strategische Autonomie treibt den Ausbau seiner Rüstungsindustrie an. Zugleich werden hohe exportpolitische Erwartungen in die Rüstungsindustrie gesetzt, doch die lokale Industrie ist gezwungen modernste Komponenten zu importieren. Dieser Beitrag debattiert das Spannungsverhältnis von strategischer Autonomie und ökonomischer Ratio im Kontext der historischen und gegenwärtigen politischen wie ökonomischen Konjunkturen und Konflikte des türkischen Neoliberalismus. Er stellt zudem aus Sicht einer kritischen Politischen Ökonomie die Frage, ob und inwieweit es sich um einen militärisch-industriellen Komplex im Werden handelt und ob dieser Begriff ermöglicht, die Begebenheiten eines Staates der kapitalistischen Semiperipherie abzubilden.

English:
Turkeys desire for a higher strategic autonomy is driving the persistent development of an indigenous defense industry. At the same time high expectations are placed into the industry’s capacity to export arms, but the local industry is forced to import the most modern components. This contribution debates the tension between strategic autonomy and economic ratio within the context of the historical and contemporary conjunctures and conflicts of Turkish Neoliberalism. Furthermore, it asks whether it can be evaluated as an ascending military-industrial-complex and if that concept enables to grasp the economic relations of a state in the capitalist semi-periphery.

https://www.prokla.de/index.php/PROKLA/article/view/1918

Turkey established a new defence industry policy n 1985, designed to create an indigenous defence industry infrastructure. The policy was aimed at creating a broad industrial defence infrastructure - including research organizations - that would eventually lead to technology transfers, self-sufficiency, provide domestic economic benefits for manufacturing and companies, and generally lessen reliance on foreign suppliers.

Today's world is facing with many security crises that are growing each day. Since its recent past, Turkey has been forced to deal with many high priority security issues, such as the Cyprus problem, separatist terrorist acts, and the Syrian Civil War. In order to solve these problems, Turkey has developed various strategies over time and has evolved into a more effective and proactive security understanding by taking lessons from the obstacles it faces in this sense. In particular, it has contributed a lot to the development of an effective and proactive security understanding by evolving from an almost completely foreign defence industry to a Turkish defence industry, which is increasingly becoming a leader in some specific technology sectors in the world. There should be no inhibitive barriers to achieve the objectives of the determined national policy with maximum efficiency and gain. Developing defence industry technologies reduce the "inhibitive" elements that pose obstacles to Turkey's security policies and enable Turkey to implement longer-term strategies. In this research, it is aimed to examine the security problems that Turkey has to struggle against and the policies it has developed from the perspective of defense industry technologies and to present a reactivity-proactivity review, especially on the recent past and today.

İleri teknolojili sektörlerden olan savunma ve havacılık sanayisi, ulusal düzeyde politika üre-tilen ve desteklenen bir sektördür. Türk savunma ve havacılık sanayisi politikası son dönemde ihtiyaçların yerli üretim ve tasarım ile karşılanması ve pazar alanını geliştirme çerçevesinde yön belirlemiştir. Bu makalenin amacı, Türk savunma ve havacılık sanayisinin küresel, ulu-sal ve yerel ölçekteki dinamiklerini Ankara örneği çerçevesinde ortaya koymaktır. Makalede savunma ve havacılık sanayisinin yapısal özellikleri ile dünyadaki gelişim süreci değerlendi-rildikten sonra sektörün Türkiye ve Ankara'daki tarihsel gelişim süreci ortaya konmaktadır. Savunma ve havacılık sanayisinin yerel dinamikleri, sektörde lider konumda olan Ankara'da, üretimin organizasyonunda iki farklı yapıyı temsil eden ana yüklenici ve alt yüklenici firma-ların sektör içerisindeki yeri, ana yüklenici alt yüklenici firma ilişkileri ile sektörün üretim organizasyonunda yaşanan sorunlar çerçevesinde değerlendirilmektir. Sonuç olarak sektörün Türkiye'de ve Ankara'da sürdürülebilir gelişiminde alt yüklenici ve ana yüklenici firma ilişki-leri ile üretim organizasyonuna ilişkin ele alınabilecek stratejiler ortaya konmaktadır.
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Defence and aviation industry is a high technology sector which is supported and developed by national policies. Over the last two decades, Turkish defence and aviation industry has determined its way as meeting the needs domestically and extending its market area. The aim of this article is to reveal the global, national and local dynamics of Turkish aviation and defence industry through the case of Ankara which has a leading role in the development of the sector in Turkey. First, the structural characteristics and the development process of defence and aviation industry in the world is put forward. Then the historical development process of the sector in Turkey and Ankara is presented. The local dynamics of the sector is evaluated through the position and capacity of large leading firms and small and medium sized firms (SMEs), the relation of these two different type of firms, and the problems of production organization in Ankara. Lastly, as a conclusion, the guiding strategies that should be developed through the relations of large firms and SMEs and production organization for the sustainable development of defence and aviation industry in Turkey and Ankara is discussed.

The reform process of Turkish defense industry as launched in the last quarter of the twentieth century has seen several achievements, as well as downfalls, and passed through major milestones. The resultant industrial structure is unique, compared to the other sectors in the country. Dominated by the TSKGV (Turkish Armed Forces Foundation), the major goal of the sector has always been involved in attaining self-sufficiency, indicative of an import substitution-oriented industry policy. This strategy is evident in decision-making and execution processes of virtually all defense procurement programs. However, lack of an efficient mechanism for science and technology policy-making mechanism, is observed as a major obstacle toward sustainable development of the sector. Although benefited from the overall economic take-off during the 2000s, today the Turkish defense industry faces to the challenge of sustainability, which is heavily dependent on export performance. The forthcoming period will test the sector, revealing the necessary coordination and communication by and between the military and civilian bureaucracies.

U ovom radu autor analizira stepen usklađenosti odbrambene saradnje Srbije i Turske od 2004. do 2014. godine sa spoljnopolitičkom koncepcijom Ahmeta Davutoglua, iznetoj u njegovom delu " Strategijska dubina ". Radi toga je u članku pretežno korišćena komparativna metoda za poređenje stepena saradnje na planu odbrane Turske i Srbije, kao i Turske i "Kosova". Isti metod korišćen je i za poređenje uočenog nivoa odbrambene saradnje sa Davutogluovim idejama iz navedenog dela. Pritom su, kao poredbena polja, izdvojeni: ugovorna osnova odbrambene saradnje, bilateralne posete visokog nivoa i konkretne aktivnosti u okviru saradnje na planu odbrane. Kvalitativna analiza sadržaja dokumenata korišćena je za prikupljanje podataka sa zvaničnih sajtova Ministarstva odbrane Srbije, pojedinih institucija Vojske Srbije, Ministarstva za Kosovske snage bezbednosti, kao i Davutogluovog dela. Autor je ustanovio da je u navedenom periodu Turska intenzivno podržavala razvoj odbrambenog sektora "Kosova" , dok je njena saradnja sa Srbijom bila ograničena na aktivnosti koje su više političke nego vojne prirode, što je u potpunom saglasju sa idejama iz "Strategijske dubine". Zaključuje se da će se i u narednom periodu odbrambena saradnja Beograda i Ankare razvijati, pre svega, u funkciji bilateralnih odnosa na političkoj ravni, pri čemu se kao otežavajuće okolnosti izdvajaju izbor Davutoglua za turskog premijera, Erdogana za turskog predsednika, ali i kriza trilateralne saradnje Srbije, Bosne i Hercegovine i Turske kao dominantnog okvira srpsko-turske političke komunikacije. Sa druge strane, saradnja Ankare i Prištine najverovatnije će biti nastavljena istim ili čak i intenzivnijim tempom, imajući u vidu da ne postoje značajnije prepreke za njen razvoj.

This research provides a critical analysis of Turkey's defense procurement behavior since 1923. The main goal behind focusing on such a long period is to find out the differences and sources of change behind the Turkey's behavior and ideas that justified certain set of behavior. However, mainstream approaches – Defense Economics, Politics of Defense and Political Economy Defense – do not provide necessary tools for such a historical analysis mainly because they are problem solving theories that operate within system that arises at certain historical moment. Furthermore, these theories, although having different focus points, operate within the liberal political economy, which assumes economics and politics are separate spheres and share various assumptions. Consequently, to address limitation of existing theories, this research adopts Gramscian historical materialism and develops Gramscian defense procurement theory. The research focuses on how hegemony is established, maintained and spread among different communities and how interaction between hegemonic structures reflect upon defense procurement behavior. Through application of such theoretical framework, the history of Turkey's defense procurement behavior is examined in three different periods (1923-1945, 1945-1980 and 1980-2013) where international structure showed different characteristics in terms of form of production, ideas and institutions as well as historical blocs and rivalry between blocs. The main argument of this research is that Turkey's defense procurement behavior is shaped the level of integration of structure in Turkey to the hegemonic structure at the international level. Consequently, defense procurement decision are taken within the boundaries of the structure.