Turkey Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Interview with TAI General Manager Mehmet Demiroğlu;
Q1: Hello, Mr. Mehmet. Today marks a historic moment for Hürjet’s journey to Spain. You’ve signed an important agreement. Could you summarize this deal and give us the latest on Hürjet’s progress in Spain?
A1:
Yes, we’re genuinely very pleased today. We've completed another key milestone in Hürjet’s journey to Spain and taken a major step forward. Airbus has been designated as the national coordinator by the Spanish Air Force and the Ministry of Defense.
This means we’ll be jointly carrying out the industrialization phase with Airbus.
Today, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between 15 companies, including Airbus and ourselves.
With this agreement, the journey of the Spanish configuration has officially begun — that is, the version incorporating systems produced locally by Spanish companies.
Within the next two months, the industrialization plan will be finalized and submitted to the relevant authorities. Once it's approved, we’ll move into the contract signing phase.
We’re aiming to sign that contract in the third quarter of this year — or at the latest, in the fourth.
Q2: Turkish Defense Industry has seen success in platform exports, especially in naval and unmanned systems. But when it comes to manned air platforms, Hürjet marks the first jet-powered export. Will Hürjet be produced at TUSAŞ facilities for the Spanish Air Force?
A2:
This project will unfold in two phases.
In the first phase, yes — everything will be produced at TUSAŞ.
In the second phase, part of the production will remain at TUSAŞ, while another part will take place in Spain.
These details will be finalized during what we call the "industrialization plan" phase.
But make no mistake: Hürjet will be our aircraft.
The majority of it will be produced at TUSAŞ. Any localization required by Spanish authorities will be carried out in cooperation with Spanish companies.
This is a major achievement.
Having a NATO country — and one of the largest in Europe at that — select Hürjet as its training aircraft before we’ve even delivered it to our own Air Force is a tremendous source of pride for us.
It’s a medal added to the march our nation has been on for the past 20 years.
Q3: You didn’t go into much detail earlier, but in fact, Hürjet entered a competition—and won. It competed against Italian and South Korean platforms. Could you elaborate a bit more on that process?
A3:
Yes, you're absolutely right.
Hürjet has reached a very strong position in terms of design.
Typically, supersonic flight is either absent or quite rare in training aircraft.
But Hürjet was designed to be capable of supersonic flight.
This made it possible to conduct supersonic training missions at a significantly lower cost.
That gave us a major advantage.
Our competitors included Boeing, Leonardo, and South Korea.
But the capabilities of our aircraft were ultimately preferred.
As a result, we came out ahead in this competition.
The strong support of our President played a key role as well.
And now, we're planning to deliver earlier than promised—with a target of 2028.
Our goal is for Hürjet to enter the inventory of both the Turkish Air Force and the Spanish Air Force.
Many thanks to Combat-Master
Q1: Hello, Mr. Mehmet. Today marks a historic moment for Hürjet’s journey to Spain. You’ve signed an important agreement. Could you summarize this deal and give us the latest on Hürjet’s progress in Spain?
A1:
Yes, we’re genuinely very pleased today. We've completed another key milestone in Hürjet’s journey to Spain and taken a major step forward. Airbus has been designated as the national coordinator by the Spanish Air Force and the Ministry of Defense.
This means we’ll be jointly carrying out the industrialization phase with Airbus.
Today, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between 15 companies, including Airbus and ourselves.
With this agreement, the journey of the Spanish configuration has officially begun — that is, the version incorporating systems produced locally by Spanish companies.
Within the next two months, the industrialization plan will be finalized and submitted to the relevant authorities. Once it's approved, we’ll move into the contract signing phase.
We’re aiming to sign that contract in the third quarter of this year — or at the latest, in the fourth.
Q2: Turkish Defense Industry has seen success in platform exports, especially in naval and unmanned systems. But when it comes to manned air platforms, Hürjet marks the first jet-powered export. Will Hürjet be produced at TUSAŞ facilities for the Spanish Air Force?
A2:
This project will unfold in two phases.
In the first phase, yes — everything will be produced at TUSAŞ.
In the second phase, part of the production will remain at TUSAŞ, while another part will take place in Spain.
These details will be finalized during what we call the "industrialization plan" phase.
But make no mistake: Hürjet will be our aircraft.
The majority of it will be produced at TUSAŞ. Any localization required by Spanish authorities will be carried out in cooperation with Spanish companies.
This is a major achievement.
Having a NATO country — and one of the largest in Europe at that — select Hürjet as its training aircraft before we’ve even delivered it to our own Air Force is a tremendous source of pride for us.
It’s a medal added to the march our nation has been on for the past 20 years.
Q3: You didn’t go into much detail earlier, but in fact, Hürjet entered a competition—and won. It competed against Italian and South Korean platforms. Could you elaborate a bit more on that process?
A3:
Yes, you're absolutely right.
Hürjet has reached a very strong position in terms of design.
Typically, supersonic flight is either absent or quite rare in training aircraft.
But Hürjet was designed to be capable of supersonic flight.
This made it possible to conduct supersonic training missions at a significantly lower cost.
That gave us a major advantage.
Our competitors included Boeing, Leonardo, and South Korea.
But the capabilities of our aircraft were ultimately preferred.
As a result, we came out ahead in this competition.
The strong support of our President played a key role as well.
And now, we're planning to deliver earlier than promised—with a target of 2028.
Our goal is for Hürjet to enter the inventory of both the Turkish Air Force and the Spanish Air Force.
Many thanks to Combat-Master
A mock-up at IDEF in July should be doable...