The Naval Systems Seminar (NSS) (16 – 17 October 2017 in Ankara, Turkey) has become a useful venue for taking the pulse of the Turkish naval market. As reflected in the sustained interest in NSS, Turkey remains an attractive market as it expands both the size and capability of its sea services. This is despite political and organizational perturbations over the past 18 months.

AMI estimates the Turkish defense budget will be US$15.3B by 2018, with the Turkish Naval Force (TNF) receiving about 20% of that. Further, with some 40% of the Navy budget estimated to be going to new platform builds, Turkish spending on new naval platforms and systems amounts to about US$ 900M per year.

At the same time, Turkey’s leadership is seeking to increase the local content of defense programs, ultimately procuring all platforms and systems from domestic firms. This would seem to make the Turkish market less attractive to non-Turkish companies seeking to preserve or expand their naval business in the country.

However, a deeper look at AMI’s market intelligence on Turkey’s major naval programs shows a more nuanced picture. Despite pronouncements about shifting to indigenous suppliers, Turkish naval programs continue to work with foreign suppliers. A brief look at Turkey’s three largest naval programs shows that foreign firms are playing major roles in each.

Anadolu Class Landing Platform, Dock (LPD) Program: In 2015 the Turkish Ministry of Defense Procurement Organization (SSM) awarded Turkish shipyard SEDEF the contract to design and build a single LPD based on the Spanish Juan Carlos class LHD for the sea service. Navantia is supplying the design and several key components of the ship (main engines, Integrated Platform Management System) as well as technology transfer and technical assistance to SEDEF for local construction. The ship is scheduled to be commissioned in 2021.

The acquisition strategy and supply chain for the LPD, the largest combatant procured by the TNF, can be described as “hybrid” mix of domestic and offshore design, system and intellectual property in the program. Key to Navantia’s success in the program has been long-term commitment and sustained investments to understand the complexities of the local market.

ADA (MILGEM S) Class Corvette Program: The MILGEM is the first complex multi-mission surface combatant built in a Turkish shipyard (Istanbul Naval Shipyard). As with the LPD, the MILGEM combines offshore and domestic combat systems and weapons in a hybrid supply chain. Prominent international suppliers include:

• Raytheon Mk31 Mod 1 launcher (21 cells) for Raytheon Mk 116 HAS Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM).
• Boeing RGM-84 Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles
• BAE Mk-32 torpedo tubes (Raytheon Mk 46 torpedoes)
• Ultra Electronics Sea Sentor torpedo countermeasures (TCM) system
• Leonardo/OTO Melara 76mm/62 dual purpose gun
• Thales Naval Nederland SMART-S Mk2 air/surface search radar (under a contract from Aselsan)

Locally-produced systems include the Meteksan TBT-01 Yakamoz bow mounted sonar system developed by Tubitak. The ship’s sonar system design also includes software and hardware to support a future Low Frequency Active Towed Array Sonar (LFATAS) installation. Aselsan is a leading candidate to provide this system. The Imtech UNIMACS 3000 IPMS on the ship is being supplied in cooperation with Yaltes, an arrangement similar to that seen with LPD IPMS (Navantia and AYESAŞ).

Reis (Type 214) Class Submarine Program: In 2009 ThyssenKrupp Marine’s (TKMS) HDW signed a construction contract to supply six domestically-built Type 214 submarines to the Turkish Navy. HDW will build six material packages and Golcuk Naval Shipyard will integrate and complete the hulls.

As with the surface combatant programs, the submarine program is a hybrid procurement. Major firms in HDW’s supply chain provide propulsion and combat systems, as they have for previous Turkish submarine programs: MTU, Siemens, Atlas Elektronik, Hensoldt, and Thales.

Aselsan will build and integrate the submarine ESM system (ARES-2N), LPI radar (Alper), integrated telecommunication system, X-band satellite communications system and a periscope thermal imaging camera. Aselsan has a contract with HDW to provide these systems.

Milsoft will develop the Link-11/22 data transfer software while Ultra Electronics will supply the torpedo countermeasures system (Sea Crypsis), a modified version of the Sea Sentor.

Concluding, this brief review of Turkey’s major naval projects shows that foreign firms are heavily involved in Turkey. And Turkish companies such as Aselsan, STM and Havelsan have emerged as key systems integrators, design agents, engineering services providers and manufacturers. Whether as future partners or competitors (or both), companies such as these represent significant factors in any company’s future Turkey naval market strategy.