ASELSAN Deputy General Manager and Defense System Technologies Sector Head Behçet Karataş stated that there is nothing that they cannot design right now, "If we need it and it is vital, we definitely do it ourselves.
Behçet Karataş, Deputy General Manager of ASELSAN and Head of Defense System Technologies Sector, stated that there is nothing they cannot design right now, "If we need it and it is vital, we definitely do it ourselves." said.
Karataş, who participated as a speaker at the conference titled "On the Road to Independent Defense Industry: ASELSAN" held at Adapazarı Cultural Center within the scope of Sakarya Metropolitan Municipality Culture and Art Activities, gave information about the activities of the institution.
Noting that ASELSAN was established to reduce foreign dependency by meeting all kinds of electronic device and system needs of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), Karataş noted that it was aimed to make this sustainable.
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Noting that ASELSAN was established to reduce foreign dependency by meeting all kinds of electronic device and system needs of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), Karataş noted that it was aimed to make this sustainable.
Stating that approximately 9,600 personnel are employed in the institution, 60 percent of which are engineers, Karataş stated that they achieved sales of 2.3 billion dollars last year.
Emphasizing that they export many products, Karataş said:
"Bayraktar has vision systems called CATS. They were bought from Canada, we developed it ourselves when the embargo was imposed. We love embargoes so much, we localized it. We did these with your children and siblings. Thank God, there is nothing we can't design right now. We just need to look at the economic dimension. "We need it, whether it's worth it or not. If we need it and it's vital, we definitely do it ourselves."
"The defense industry has to be national and local"
Emphasizing that Turkey was not affected by the embargoes, Karataş said, "We have the knowledge, capacity and production to meet the needs of not only the Turkish Armed Forces, but also all friendly countries. In the past, our defense industry was neglected and turned into a nail-making state. This should not be erased from the public's memory. The defense industry is national. And it has to be local, not neglected." made its assessment.
Karataş stated that ASELSAN allocated a budget of 500 million dollars for R&D activities last year, and said that in order to develop technology, young people need to work hard and train themselves well.
After his speech, Karataş, who answered the questions, was presented a gift.
