IN TWO YEARS ANKA AND IN FOUR YEARS MİLGEM TO JOIN NATIONAL INVENTORY

Turkey's Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) has defined their 2012-2016 Strategic Plan for over 280 projects which were initiated in 2011. Turkey's Defense Industry has embarked upon a series of projects including the production of national tanks, aircraft, ships, satellites and helicopters. Contracts signed last year alone by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries toppled 27 billion, 301 million dollars. With the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries' Strategic Plan, within the next five years, Turkey aims to become one of the top ten countries in the global defense industry league.

According to the plan, the Long-Range Antitank Missile System will be completed by the end of this year, while the Mid-Range Antitank Missile System will be included in the state's inventory by the end of 2013. The "CİRİT", an active laser-guided missile considered to be the mark of a significant step in Turkey's missile technology, will be put into mass-production and integrated into the ATAK Helicopter by the end of 2013. Also to be included in the inventory by the end of 2014 is the Turkish-made unmanned aerial vehicle ANKA as well as the tactical unmanned aerial vehicle. In addition, the concept design for the Jet Training Plane and Combat Airplane will also be finalized by the end of 2014. The first prototype of Altay, Turkey's third-generation national tank will be completed by the end of 2015. Hürkuş, the training plane designed by Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (TUSAŞ) will be added to the inventory by the end of 2015. The design for the Low and Medium altitude Air Defense Missile systems will be finalized by the end of 2016, while the first ship in the national warship project MİLGEM-S will also be completed in 2016.