Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank examined the Integrated Sonar System Development Project at the TÜBİTAK MAM Underwater Acoustic Laboratory. Explaining that they have started to develop a much more powerful, much more capable sonar operating at low frequency, Minister Varank said, “This new national sonar is the TF-2000 Air Defense Warfare Destroyer, which will be built as the first national sonar project developed for Turkey's MİLGEM ship. to be used.” said.
TÜBİTAK MAM has started working on its new sonar project. The new sonar will detect low-frequency sound waves in the open sea from long distances. It will strengthen Turkey's power in the open seas against possible threats. The project, carried out with the Ministry of National Defense, can be integrated into military ships. With the project whose prototype production has started, Turkey will be one of the few countries with this technology. The integrated sonar system will make a serious contribution to the economy as well as national security. Exports of the system to friendly and allied countries will bring a great competitive advantage to Turkey.
Minister Varank said:
“This is the first underwater acoustics laboratory that has been brought to Turkey and has the highest capabilities. Here, we both develop and produce the products that our Ministry of National Defense and Naval Forces need. As TÜBİTAK MAM, we developed and installed underwater sonar on our ships in Turkey's National Ship Project (MİLGEM). Now we are moving into a new dimension. Again, together with our Ministry of National Defense, we started to develop a much stronger and more capable sonar operating at low frequency. This sonar will also be used in Turkey's first air defense ship and will provide Turkey with serious capabilities.
We started the project earlier this year. We can say that we have taken a very serious road. The time given to us is 3 years. Hopefully, our friends also promised that we will have completed this sonar in 2 years, and thus we will have made much more serious contributions to Turkey in terms of the defense industry. There is another dimension of this project that makes us happy. We are also working with TÜBİTAK BİLGEM here. They also bring together the software side of this business.
Previously, we had to procure some products from abroad in the sonar we produced. Even if we had designed them ourselves, we had to produce and import them. Another feature of this project is that all of these products, especially the ceramic materials used here, are developed and produced here by ourselves. Then, their integration on the software side is done with BİLGEM.
TÜBİTAK is an institution that is the patron of research and development in Turkey. In every field, civil technologies, military technologies, health technologies, we both support R&D activities in Turkey and at the same time, we carry out active projects in these fields with our own institutes, institutions and researchers. It is very important for TÜBİTAK to gain this capability in the defense industry, underwater and acoustics, to become a supplier for friendly and allied countries, and to show the point our country has reached.”
TÜBİTAK President Hasan Mandal emphasized that the defense industry is very critical in terms of competitive advantage, but the civilian use of the sonar system is also possible, and said, “Especially in a country like Turkey, when we look at the security of the straits and the coastline, we think that it will be important in terms of civil security in the territorial waters of our country, beyond national security. ” said.
Underwater Acoustics Laboratory Senior Chief Specialist and Project Manager Dr. Alper Biber stated that they carried out Turkey's first underwater acoustic application for submarines at MİLGEM and explained that the laboratory was established as a test infrastructure within the scope of this project. Noting that they can perform tests and characterizations of all electro-acoustic transducers in the 1-500 kHz frequency range in the pool in the laboratory, Biber said that the pool is the first and only one in its field in Turkey.
Pepper stated that with the Integrated Sonar System Development Project, which they have just started after MİLGEM, they aim to develop a multistatic sonar system that can operate in integration with different platforms at a lower frequency, “Two different sonar systems will be developed in the project. This project includes Anti-Submarine Warfare Sonar and Small Target Detection Sonar and all their test characterizations and sea tests. The main purpose of the project is to prepare a sonar system that takes care of Turkey's interests in the far seas. This means lowering the frequency. In other words, after the first MİLGEM, we, as TÜBİTAK MAM, will bring a different sonar system for a different ship to our country with this project.” he said.
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