TEKNOFEST, which was held at Istanbul Atatürk Airport again this year under the management of the Turkish Technology Team Foundation and the Ministry of Industry and Technology, continues.
The Ministry of National Defense and its affiliates also take part in the festival and organize various activities.
Muhsin Dere, Deputy Minister of National Defense, said that TEKNOFEST adventure started in 2018 and 6 years have been left behind.
Reminding that the fourth TEKNOFEST was held in Istanbul and festivals were held in Gaziantep, Samsun and Baku, Dere said:
“We have witnessed all of this. Actually, this is a pride for us. We see the point TEKNOFEST has reached. We see the demand of our nation in particular. We see the participation of students. TEKNOFEST has reached the number of competitors exceeding 1 million. At first, TEKNOFEST has reached millions of competitors.
This is awesome. It’s actually a worldwide festival, a technology festival. 300 thousand teams, 1 million participants, this is amazing. In addition, there are millions of spectators and participants. It is an event where people come and touch the RED, TB3, ATAK helicopter, F-16, get on the A400M and see our soldiers. A nice environment was provided, with military-civilian intertwined.”
Emphasizing that as a Ministry, they have been supporting TEKNOFEST since 2018 until the end, Dere made the following assessment:
“From our point of view, it is actually extremely important for the integration of the armed forces and the youth. We took part in TEKNOFEST as the institution that provides the most support every year. Again this year, around 400 of our military and civilian personnel participate in TEKNOFEST. Our helicopters, 19 aircraft, Solo Fest. Turkish and Turkish Stars participate. Again, our mehteran team, our military band participate. This year, unlike previous years, there are teams from the United Arab Emirates and Morocco for demonstration flights, which is pleasing. Participation together with our Turkish Stars and Solo Türk As you know, our HÜRJET made its first flight. Hopefully, our aircraft used in Solo Türk and Turkish Stars will be HÜRJET in the coming years. We are happy about this as well.”
Reminding that there were days when the deliveries of beautiful projects in the defense industry were experienced and they were taken into inventory, Dere said that during this process, 2 prototypes of the Altay tank were received by the Turkish Armed Forces for testing, TCG Anadolu was delivered, HÜRJET flew, KIZILELMA’s flight tests continued, ATAK- He explained that the final stage was reached in 2 helicopters and that the GÖKBEY helicopter took off with the TS1400 engine.
Intensive production and delivery schedule
Emphasizing that the way to be permanent in the defense industry is through exports, Dere said that ASFAT Military Factory and Shipyard Operation Inc. is one of the examples of this. Dere gave the following information about ASFAT’s export activities:
“ASFAT uses the facilities of military factories and shipyards. These gigantic structures play an important role not only for maintenance and repair, but also for opening them up for export. The project volume has reached 3.5 billion dollars. This is a good success for a company of 3-4 years. 50 percent of the project volume of 5 billion dollars is export-oriented projects. We want ASFAT to continue this. It has important projects and deliveries in the coming months. It is building 6 ships on the MİLGEM platform at the same time. This is a very difficult thing, actually in maritime projects. 4 of them Pakistan MİLGEM project, the construction of ships continues at the same time, two in Karachi and two in Istanbul Shipyard.
We have ceremonies in the coming months. At the end of May, we will launch the 4th ship of Pakistan MİLGEM in Karachi. Right after that, we are building 2 offshore patrol ships, which are actually MİLGEM-sized ships built on the 99-meter MİLGEM Platform. We do it for our Navy. The first of them has a landing ceremony. Afterwards, the first ship of Pakistan MİLGEM is now delivered to the Pakistani Navy. This will be a completely day-to-day event with no delays. We are planning this for August as well.
In November, the launching ceremony of our second offshore patrol vessel will be held. We have so many platforms and ships that we even confuse which ceremony and when. Thank God, in naval projects, both our military and private shipyards fulfill the needs of our Navy with great success.
A private shipyard built the TCG Anadolu ship. We see the İ classes, our private sector shipyards build our 3 İ class ships. On the one hand, ASFAT has achieved significant export success, making offshore patrol vessels. ASFAT was commissioned for the design activity of the TF-2000 air defense destroyer. The first ship will be designed and built at the military shipyard. Later, our private sector will also step in.”
