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DIMDEX
2012 - Show Daily News |
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| HAVELSAN:
A Key Player for Combat System Integration onboard Turkish MILGEM Type
Corvettes |
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Turkish
Defense Industry has accelerated efforts to enhance local industrial
participation in the Turkish Armed Forces defense contracts during the
last decade. Especially, Turkish naval industry has been the most robust
to accommodate with this revolutionary development. Turkish Navy’s
MILGEM program is being managed smoothly on the schedule. The first
corvette, TCG HEYBELIADA, was delivered to the Turkish Navy on 27 September
2011. This is an unprecedented success on the Turkish side, since MILGEM
is the first attempt of the Turkish Navy to design its own combatants.
HAVELSAN plays a critical role in designing, developing and delivering
high-tech combat systems for those combat vessels.
During the first decade of the 21st century, Turkish defense industry
has been subjected to a radical reorganization along with a renovated
infrastructure to meet the reshaped demand of the sector. The driving
authority who orchestrates this change, Undersecretariat of Defense
Industries (SSM), issued a Strategy Paper (2007-2011) in 2006 in order
to harmonize formulation of arms acquisition policies and to realize
a calculated increase in the local contribution on defence production
and services. Now, at the expiration time of that paper, it is not easy
to say whether the set goals have been attained or not. But, if we look
at the last two years’ developments on the Turkish maritime industry,
focusing on the naval sector, several events seem to be remarkable to
conclude that the SSM efforts have finally been paid off. Namely, in
2010, the first platform of New Type Patrol Boat (NTPB) was launched
on 9 April and the first corvette of MILGEM commenced sea trials on
12 November as the outcomes of the most important naval programmes of
SSM acquisition agenda. And in 2011, beside TCG HEYBELIADA, three more
boats of NTPB were delivered to the Turkish Navy.
In fact, Turkish civilian and military shipyards have been long building
commercial and naval platforms since the Ottoman era. But, those two
projects should be regarded as exceptional because;
• The hulls are based on indigenous Turkish design,
• “Local content” is well over 50% as targeted by
SSM.
• Local companies have mostly been preferred by SSM to undertake
related contracts and sub-contracts as main and sub-contractors.
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Integration
and CMS – Where HAVELSAN Come into the Game
As the largest software producer of Turkey, HAVELSAN
is one of those local companies who involves extensively in both projects.
Originally, as the name implies , HAVELSAN has been founded mainly
to provide software and some electronic spares for the Air Force.
But, over the years, HAVELSAN has successfully expanded its customer
portfolio to include civilian sector and, of course, the Navy. First
introduction of HAVELSAN to the Navy was the MELTEM project in which
the company was responsible to produce software components of Command
and Control System for newly acquired Maritime Patrol Aircrafts as
the sub-contractor of THALES.
After MELTEM project,
HAVELSAN has earned a very good reputation by its well- known success
with the GENESIS project. In short, GENESIS is an extensive upgrade
and modernization program for Combat Management Systems of 8 Turkish
FFG-7 class frigates. GENESIS served as a springboard for HAVELSAN
to be assigned as the main system integrator and software provider
for naval projects by SSM . Besides other current and potential naval
acquisition programmes such as NTPB and New Type Submarine projects
(NTSP), HAVELSAN is now creating another good reputation by its significant
contribution to the success of MILGEM project.
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MILGEM
Project – HAVELSAN Role
As outlined above, MILGEM is extremely
important for the Turkish naval community since it constitutes another
milestone in the history of Turkish shipyards where warships have been
built for more than nine centuries. After the collapse of Ottoman Empire,
Turkish shipyards had lost most of their capabilities. Founder of the
Republic, M.Kemal ATATÜRK, has strongly promoted the establishment
of a national naval industry in 1930’s. After almost 80 years
of “pause”, ATATÜRK’s vision is finally being
realized by MILGEM project.
On the other hand, HAVELSAN plays two critical roles in MILGEM
as;
• the Combat System and Combat Management System provider and
• the main system integrator together with ASELSAN, its Sister
Company in Turkish Armed forces Foundation
As for the Combat System, HAVELSAN basically offers an updated and tailored
version of the GENESIS CMS to meet the requirements of the Turkish Navy.
The summation of HAVELSAN CMS activities includes;
• Track Management
• Combat Management
• Navigation
• Sensor/Weapon Control
• Training & Simulation
• Subsystem Integration
And as main system integrator, HAVELSAN combines all related systems,
weapons and sensors with the ships Combat System which should be as
complicated and challenging as it sounds. Main integration efforts include;
• Weapon/sensor integration to the CMS.
• Procurement and integration of;
- Combat Management System hardware including various number of Multifunction
Operator Consoles , Cabinets, work stations and Main Processor units
- Torpedo Countermeasures System
• Design/production and integration of;
- Ship Data Distribution and Time System
- Combat System Data and Video Network
- Message Handling System
- Ship Information System
Ship Data Distribution System – Another Success Story
Among all of the above systems and accessories, HAVELSAN’s own
Ship Data Distribution System (SDDS) deserves a closer look. First of
all, SDDS should be regarded as a milestone in the history of Turkish
naval electronics sector, since it is the first locally designed and
developed product of its kind. SDSS has already proved itself by successful
implementation not only on MILGEM but also onboard the first four boats
of NTPB project.
Basically, MILGEM SDDS collects the data (such as position, time, speed,
heading etc.) from the sensors all around the ship and distributes that
information to sensors, weapons and other systems. It also provides
very important advantages by adopting ship position sensors (e.g echo
sounder, INS, GPS, LOG, meteorological units) with other Military Off-
the-Shelf sensors and units without any need for modification on these
subsystems. Consequently; a good deal of man-day and cost has been reduced
during integration phase. SDDS operates on two identical electronic
control cabinets providing full redundancy. More reliability is also
provided by performing the same task at two different locations on the
ship.
Owing to its flexible and open-architecture design, HAVELSAN SDDS offers
two important advantages over the other similar systems;
• SDDS could easily been modified to be deployed on any type warships.
• A simplified and affordable SDDS may also be made available
to be used onboard merchant vessels.
Providing a low-cost and easily available alternative to the imported
systems, HAVELSAN SDDS seems to be very popular among shipyards constructing
naval platforms. HAVELSAN has already received several orders for ongoing
and future projects.
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Recent
Developments on MILGEM
Naval construction projects are generally very expensive, complex
and frequently prone to the mismanagement and financial constraints
as were the case for the U.S. Littoral Combat Ship project. As a unique
contradiction to this hypothesis, MILGEM project is carried out smoothly
with only a few months delay. The prototype of the project (TCG HEYBELIADA)
was laid on 27 July 2005, and launched successfully on 27 September
2008 when the second keel of the program was laid. Her first live
demonstration to the international market took place during IDEF-2011
in Istanbul on 17-21 May 2011. Exactly 3 years after launch, TCG HEYBELIADA
was delivered to Turkish Navy on 27 September 2011.
On the other hand, HAVELSAN has been working hard for the second MILGEM
combatant and has already delivered hardware and software components
of combat system and focused on the integration part. Meanwhile, SSM
has recently requested offers from local shipyards for the remaining
6 MILGEM platforms. Of course, proven success makes HAVELSAN a preferred
business partner.
Critical Support from Turkish Navy
While becoming one of the biggest local contractors for naval defense
contracts, HAVELSAN has been heavily supported and promoted by the
Turkish Navy. In particular, recent leasing of a R&D center inside
the naval shipyard premises, close cooperation in research and development
for future CMS technologies and harmonized efforts for high technology
transfer are remarkable.
Conclusion
HAVELSAN portion of the MILGEM program has not only contributed to
the success of the project, but also helped SSM to realize the set
goals for local industrial participation. With the successful execution
of this project, HAVELSAN has already been a reliable and experienced
partner for the Turkish Navy and for the local shipyards as well to
prefer for oncoming naval construction programmes. HAVELSAN now offers
an indigenous, flexible and affordable alternative in modern naval
combat systems engineering and system integration.
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