Ukraine has purchased the Turkish UAVs for a reason....
Let’s see what have been achieved so far with the Turkish systems under development:
- Offensive ops inside Syria backed by Russia (S-300/400). The backbone of the Syrian Army go broken
- Offensive ops in Libya to crush Russia/UAE/Egypt/KSA etc. backed Hafter with great successes
- Offensive ops against Russian/French armed Armenian to liberate Karabag’
- Ops in the East Med against the combined naval/air power of Greece/France/Germany/Italy etc. to claim her EEZ rights. The French frigates were locked while the Rafaels were lurking by
- Offensive ops in the Northern Irak against USA/KSA/Israil/UAE/EU etc. armed and trained PKK to crush them to the ground. Lands are being permanently taken back
What can be achieved when the systems get developed?
By the by, other the engines almost every thing else is indecency’s. As for the engines the folk rings are done:
- Turbo diesel aero engines for UAVs: done
- Turbo jet engines for cruise missiles, kamikaze and target drones: done
- Turbo shaft engines for choppers: pro types fine. Serial production by 2023
- Turbo prop engines: both indigenous and JV with Ukraine on-going
- Diesel engines for armored, SPGs, IFVs, MRAPs: prototype done. Serial production within a couple of yesrs
- Gas turbine engines for naval platforms, batteries and AIP for submarines: under development
- Turbo-fan engines for fighters: under development
I’m not doubting Turkish tech, it’s very impressive, especially the drones and the MILGEM/MILDEN projects. Not to mention Turkey is trying it’s hand at
everything now, something Pakistan wanted to try in the 90s/2000s but couldn’t as I mentioned above. And the issue I mentioned is only with the PA mainly, PAF and PN are buying a lot of Turkish stuff because they are not similarly logistically alienated from what Turkey uses.
The other thing Turkey is doing right is the sort of saturation it’s bringing to its own market, unlike in Pakistan where historically one company designs one thing for the army, the correct route is to let everyone present their ideas and then test and pick the best one, as the USA and Russia do it, and now Turkey is doing too, it ensures that all the capable people are put on the map for future projects. Pakistan is only starting to do this recently at a small scale.
The issue I see with Turkish tech is it’s current dependence on countries with whom Turkey now has a sort of friction, particularly the USA and some European countries. The dependence isn’t the issue, Pakistan too is dependent on foreign tech, but our relations with said countries are secure. Turkey is obviously trying to indigenize everything, but these issues with the USA (or looming issues with Europe) will delay the big Turkish plan for its industry, especially when it comes to export, as is being seen with the ATAK, these issues might carry forward to Atlay or TFX. Because while Turkey is fully capable of making all this tech on their own, foreign help significantly speeds up these processes, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with ToTs, JVs and technical help while trying to indigenize products, no country can do it alone. Even Russia and China used a lot of reverse engineering to get where they are now,
Turkey will still achieve its indigenization even
if these issues become real, but it will take longer, without access to the best of western tech, and this is an issue for Pakistan because it too has certain gripes with the west now, and cannot use some of the Turkish tech until it’s dependence on western suppliers ends.
Turkish tanks are currently all foreign, but modernized by Turkey, particularly their Leo 1 and 2s and M60Ts, these have all been modernized with Israeli or western support. So Pakistan cannot exactly buy Turkish tank tech (even excluding logistical reasons)
The Atlay is the Turkish solution to this, as it’s going to be almost fully indigenous, and Pakistan has shown interest in it, but again, it’s still a few years down the line and will require major logistical restructuring to use apart from in very small numbers.
