Osman Okyay: New technologies are changing the combat environment
Osman Okyay, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Defense and Aerospace Industry Manufacturers Association (SASAD), stated that technological development has brought about major changes in the concept of war and pointed out that major revolutions have been experienced in the defense sector.
Pointing out that the times when only soldiers fighting physically determined the outcome are behind us, Okyay said, “We are witnessing a radical transformation of the battlefield and military doctrines. Wars have actually moved not only to the physical field, but also to digital and cyber environments. All-in-one in the air, land, sea, space and cyberspace.” We are talking about a war and building a soldier and war technologies suitable for it. We predict that artificial intelligence will play a very serious role. Therefore, we believe that instant decisions will be very important in the wars of the future. We think it will be received with data analytics, information and analysis coming from there.” he said.
Okyay emphasized that very different technologies will determine the combat environment of the future and said, “Turkey is also leading the technologies in this transformation. The technologies we have gained with UAVs and UCAVs are not limited to just those product groups. Technologies that go far beyond these product groups. Warfare and “The war information network is integrated with central systems. Each autonomous system actually becomes an element of that network center. There is a great competition in the world regarding the approach to integrated systems.” expressed his opinion.
“Türkiye HAS STRONG ADAPTIVE CAPACITY”
Okyay pointed out that classical frontline wars have been replaced by asymmetric, cyber attacks, operations carried out with robotic and autonomous systems, and pointed out that Turkey has a very strong adaptation capacity at this point.
Osman Okyay said:
“We have a rapid prototyping capability, and this capability gives us a great advantage. We have obtained the results of the work on UAV and UAV very quickly. It is no different in other sectors, but especially in the defense sector, speed and rapid product development will be a huge determining factor. Especially in the future defense The biggest component that will provide an advantage in the competition will be rapid prototyping processes. With these capabilities, Turkish products have found very serious buyers in a wide geography. With this speed, Turkey has developed a very serious product family. “We are reaching this point not only in cyber and space fields, but the establishment of the Cyber Security Presidency will be our most important advantage to rapidly develop our Integrated Operations Capabilities and transfer them to the field.”
“EUROPE IS REDISCOVERING DEFENSE”
Osman Okyay stated that America allocates more budget in the field of defense technologies than the total of the rest of the countries in the world and therefore has made rapid technological developments, and said:
“Especially Europe had seriously slowed down and suspended its investments in this sector after the establishment of the European Union. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine was a trigger, a wake-up call for Europe. Currently, Europe is allocating serious resources to rebuild the defense industry infrastructure for the next 10 years.” Turkey is much luckier in this sense. We are talking about an experience and a journey that lasts 40 years. Turkey is very important in this sense. “China is once again among the big players. The war is a war of technology. Our country has no disadvantage from any other country in this war of technology. On the contrary, we are in this war of technology with our experience.”
ACHIEVEMENTS AND STRATEGIES WILL BE DISCUSSED
Okyay stated that the Future Soldier 2024 organization will be a platform where the latest developments in military technologies and defense industry will be discussed.
Stating that the first day of the organization will focus on global defense policies and technological innovations with international participation, Osman Okyay said that on the second day, Turkey’s achievements in the defense industry and future strategies will be discussed within the scope of the “National Defense Axis”.
Osman Okyay said:
“In the organization, we will discuss the developments both in the world and in Turkey. Developments such as autonomous systems, robotic systems, artificial intelligence, satellite and communication, wearable military technologies, big data will be discussed with the emphasis of ‘New World, New War and New Warrior’. The war environments of the future.” The latest technology products of our domestic defense industry companies will also be discussed with the participants. The organization is not a simple information sharing organization, but also includes inter-sectoral cooperation. “Academics will also bring together the components of the industry. One of the most important outputs will be the analysis of the current technological trend.”
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