ANKARA, Turkey — Greater than 100 protection firms from world wide descended on Turkey this month because the nation eyes fashionable options to reinforce its border safety capabilities.
Attendees of the third Army Radar and Border Safety Summit, which occurred Oct. 5-6 in Ankara, primarily mentioned choices to defend in opposition to drone assaults utilizing lasers, jamming, kamikaze drones and sensors.
The native Unbiased Industrialists and Businessmen Affiliation hosted the occasion, which noticed 110 protection and aerospace firms from greater than 20 international locations showcase their merchandise. Moreover, high-level officers, together with ministers, ambassadors and representatives from the protection trade, attended MRBS.
Turkey’s prime procurement official, Ismail Demir, underlined the significance of 24/7 monitoring of the nation’s border to stop unauthorized refugee crossings, terrorist exercise and smuggling. “For steady monitoring and surveillance, built-in safety options, together with subtle digital sensor programs, are required on this context. [The Presidency of Defence Industries] will proceed to work on this discipline in accordance with the wants and expectations of consumer authorities,” he mentioned in a speech on the summit.
Protection Information spoke to the senior member of MRBS’ organizing committee, Koray Tuncer, concerning the occasion’s highlights.
“The principle objective of MRBS is to deliver the newest developments in border safety to the forefront. We additionally intention to supply a platform for many who manufacture the newest applied sciences on this discipline to satisfy with senior decision-makers and know-how consultants within the armed forces, gendarmerie and police. Growing export alternatives is among the functions of this summit,” Tuncer mentioned.
He added that contracts and memorandums of understanding had been signed throughout the summit, however he was unable to debate the offers intimately resulting from safety issues.
Turkish protection analyst Ozgur Eksi informed Protection Information that unmanned know-how in addition to soft- and hard-kill measures in opposition to drones dominated the summit.
“The safety of navy forces serving alongside the border was probably the most mentioned matter on the occasion. Drones and manned assaults are the 2 important types of threats to the border items. Unmanned threats are primarily improvised UAVs employed for reconnaissance or assault goals by terrorist organizations. These are small-sized, short-range units which can be changing into more and more proof against jamming, are quiet resulting from their electrical motor and use easy autopilots. Consequently, they’re extremely troublesome to detect, significantly at night time,” defined Eksi, who additionally based information outlet TurDef.
As an illustration, he mentioned, Turkish firms Havelsan and Transvaro developed an built-in detection system that employs a number of sensors — utilizing radars, electro-optical programs and associated software program — to supply space safety in opposition to manned and unmanned threats.
One other key matter of the summit was using vertical-takeoff-and-landing drones for transferring provides to frame forces.
“There could also be some dangers related to the cargo [to] such items by land, significantly in locations the place a terrorist menace exists. Transportation inside the capability of VTOL UAVs will guarantee quicker and safer logistics help, in addition to help reconnaissance and surveillance duties throughout deployment,” Eksi mentioned.
Additionally very important to efficient border safety is coordination amongst forces by means of actions and communication. Amongst among the merchandise on show at MRBS had been network-based programs meant to meet that requirement and deal with uneven threats.
Native firm Meteksan Defence, which created know-how already fielded by border safety forces, has been partnering with different companies to satisfy authorities wants. Burak Akbas, the corporate’s gross sales, advertising and marketing and company fame director, particularly pointed to the Retinar radar system at present underneath use for human detection and recognition in border areas. Based mostly on that know-how, Meteksan has taken its radar and mixed it with a machine gun made by native agency Unidef.
Turkey’s investments alongside its border have primarily centered on air and floor surveillance to fill detection and safety gaps. Its wall created alongside the Iran border is supported by electro-optical sensors, radars and UAVs to fight unlawful immigration and drug smuggling.
Turkey’s largest protection firm, Aselsan, supplied the Midas detection system, which makes use of underground fiber-optic cables to detect, analyze and share data on border violations. Its acoustic detection functionality additionally displays border crossing makes an attempt through underground tunnels.
The federal government additionally procured Aselsan’s Karagoz aerostat surveillance system for the southern Hatay province throughout from Syria’s northwestern metropolis of Idlib. The system can scan an space of three sq. miles with its mounted wide-area surveillance digital camera.
Moreover, Turkey’s Inside Ministry lately awarded Ares a contract for 122 coastal protection boats. The shipyard accomplished trials and commenced mass manufacturing this month.
The federal government additionally bought 57 Ates armored automobiles from native enterprise Katmerciler, in addition to 82 Cobra II armored automobiles from Otokar. The European Union’s funding mechanism “Instrument for Pre-Accession Help” paid for these automobiles. Between 2014 and 2016, the EU supplied Turkey with about €158 million (U.S. $184 million) for border safety.
Tayfun Ozberk is a Turkey correspondent for Protection Information.