Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has engaged with a major U.S. ballistic missile defense
project.

Turkey’s state-owned Havelsan has been participating in the U.S. Aegis
program, designed to intercept ballistic missiles from the sea. Havelsan has
contributed naval combat management capabilities to enhance Aegis, led by
Lockheed Martin.

Aegis has been procured by the navies of Australia, Japan, Norway, Spain
and the United States. L-M did not say how the Havelsan management system differed from other Aegis models.

“We’ve now witnessed in real time how well our systems work together,
which also speaks to the strong and significant partnership of our two
companies within the industry,” Carl Bannar, a vice president at Lockheed
Martin’s Mission Systems and Training business, said.

The partnership was demonstrated during a naval combat system mockup at IDEF-2013 in Istanbul in May. Executives said Havelsan and L-M — which in 2011 signed an agreement to cooperate on naval combat systems — developed interfaces to combine their technologies in what was meant to be marketed to Middle East states, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Council.

“We have demonstrated that we can enhance our existing naval combat
management system capabilities by using data from the naval radar, Spy-1,”
Havelsan chief executive officer Sadik Yamac said.

Yamac said Havelsan, a contractor for the Turkish Navy, leveraged the
capabilities of Aegis to produce what he termed a “total naval combat system
for the most stressing operational requirements of many countries.” The
executive did not report any Turkish Navy interest in Aegis, which was
preparing to receive a new interceptor variant, SM-3 Block 1B.

“The combined technology of Turkish-Aegis combat system can be a
considerable solution for the countries in Middle East region and some other
countries,” L-M said on May 9.

  Havelsan, IDEF-2013, Lockheed Martin, SM-3 Block 1B, Turkey joins U.S. Aegis missile defense program