Otokar – Targeting Growing Markets in Developing CPart 1 of the interview with Mr Serdar Gorguc, General Manager of Otokar
Turkey’s size and its geopolitical location have made the country a key NATO partner during the past decades. Its political and economic position provided an increasing national perception of Turkey’s strategic potential and entitlement as a major regional player. In parallel, Turkey’s defence industry witnessed growing importance with a significant number of national and multi-national development, manufacturing and modernisation programmes currently being realised or planned. Increasing investment and collaboration is considered, in particular, with countries that are still developing and modernising their basic military capabilities.
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With a turnover of €259 million and an extensive range of combat vehicle solutions, Otokar is among the leading defence companies in Turkey. In this light, Nicolas von Kospoth of defpro.com asked Mr Serdar Gorguc, General Manager of Otokar, to outline the company’s current activities in national and international programmes.
defpro.com: Mr Gorguc, could you please give our readers a brief overview of Otokar and its activities? What has been the turnover of Otokar in 2010 and what is your outlook for 2011?
Serdar Gorguc: Turkey’s leading and largest privately owned tactical vehicles manufacturer, Otokar, has offered particular solutions for the needs of customers with its own technology, design and applications since 1963. The company designs and manufactures tactical wheeled vehicles and tactical armoured vehicles. Otokar operates, with 1700 employees, in a 552.000 m² plant in Turkey.
Otokar is a Koc Group Company, Turkey’s largest conglomerate, whose revenues in 2010 were US$36 billion and counts a workforce of 73,000 employees.
Along with its design and development capabilities, Otokar largely enjoys the significant advantage of its own integrated manufacturing technology. Having a flexible manufacturing ability based upon customer needs is another significant asset of the company.
Otokar is recognised for manufacturing a wide range of Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), border security vehicles, reconnaissance and surveillance vehicles, weapons platforms, mine-resistant troop carriers, NBC reconnaissance, medical evacuation vehicles and ambulances. Otokar has more than 25,000 operational vehicles in more than 20 countries, especially built to perform in active duty and conflict zones.
Over the years, the proven ability and multiple role capabilities of Otokar vehicles made the company the main supplier of the Turkish Armed Forces and overall export leader of the Turkish Defence Industry.
Otokar’s turnover in 2010 was approximately €259 million and we are expecting the 2011 turnover to be realised at the same level.
defpro.com: A last look back onto 2010: How would you review the activities undertaken by Otokar last year?
Gorguc: 2010 was an R&D oriented year for Otokar. In addition to our regular R&D investments, we started-up our Climate Test Chamber with Dynamometer, which shortened the time for tests and resulted in short designing periods, in order to quickly respond to clients’ needs.
We focused on enlarging our armoured product range from 4x4’s to multi-wheel configuration vehicles. At Eurosatory, we unveiled ARMA, our newest product family within Otokar’s tactical wheeled armoured vehicle range with modular multi-wheel configuration. Development studies from concept design till the end of test phases, including qualification and validation processes, detailed design, and computer aided engineering studies, have been performed by Otokar. Thanks to its superior tactical, technical features and the high level of ballistic and mine protection, we received our first order in 6 months time. This award was really important for us since it demonstrates the trust placed in Otokar’s armoured tactical vehicles.
In terms of contracts, in 2010 we mainly focused on deliveries of those orders we received in the previous year, such as a Turkish Army order for supplying 861 tactical vehicles. Last year, we were awarded with new orders, especially for the Otokar APV and COBRA, from Turkey and abroad. Also, two more countries became Otokar armoured vehicles users last year.
Additionally, last year we proceeded in the design of the very first national battle tank for the Turkish Armed Forces. Naturally, this is a long-term development project and being the prime contractor for such a complex program is a very prestigious project for Otokar. Most of our engineering and R&D sources are now centralised around this project. ALTAY project is mainly a design, development, prototyping and qualification of Tukey’s first main battle tank and user requirement calls for a very capable, highly protected and highly mobile platform. We finalised the concept development phase and are currently running the detailed design phase. Prototyping will take place in 2012. We are very proud of being the prime contractor for such an ambitious and challenging development project.
defpro.com: As you explained, you have a large number of different tactical vehicles in your range and have already supplied military vehicles to more than 20 armed forces. Do you primarily rely on in-house development or do you work together with national and international industrial partners in order to meet your customer’s technological requirements and to present new innovative solutions?
Gorguc: The mission of Otokar is to design and manufacture vehicles with complete Intellectual Property Rights belonging to Otokar. All of Otokar armoured vehicle platforms, which have witnessed outstanding customer satisfaction, are of its own design.
However, Otokar does work, along with different industrial partners, to meet its customer needs, and we cooperate with many international industrial or engineering partners for subsystem development and supply. Those are armour, weapon stations, electronics and any subsystem that is either required by the user or that we think will create a benefit for the user. We do believe in expertise. What is important for us is to create synergy with a remarkable added value through Otokar’s R&D capabilities and use this synergy to meet our customers’ needs.
defpro.com: Probably more than any other NATO member of comparable size, Turkey’s armed forces still largely focuses on conventional warfare and, thus, on protection against conventional threats. Do you see technological differences between your national approach and the international market?
Gorguc: Otokar has a vehicle development strategy that covers national and global armed forces requirements against current and future warfare threats. The technological levels of the vehicles depend on mission profiles and Otokar has the highest level of knowledge to adapt various types of equipment, modular armour and weapons platforms, according to customer requirements.
Despite some regional differences, global threats such as conventional, asymmetric, chemical or biological warfare are the same for national and international customers. Otokar has the technological knowledge and its own design solutions to comply with customer requirements in accordance with the requested technological configuration. At this point, I have to mention that Otokar also has platforms that are solely developed for internal security or paramilitary missions, as well as MOUT operations [military operations in urban terrain – Ed.], and those are either in service in Turkey or in some export countries with very successful track records.
defpro.com: In this light, how do you position yourself to also meet the customers’ current requirements, including high mobility and protection against asymmetric threats such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), and others?
Gorguc: Otokar always follows and estimates the global threats in land warfare. During developments of COBRA in the 1990s, Otokar’s aim was to design an armoured vehicle which combines excellent mine and ballistic protection, along with high mobility and survivability. Today in the 2000s, combining mobility and protection is one of the key concerns in land forces. The reason why COBRA succeeded in recent years is because COBRA meets that demand.
Today, Otokar armoured vehicles are mostly used in peacekeeping operations and in conflict zones around the world. Their success in these regions has always been one of the key references for Otokar. We do learn and gain experience and, thanks to our R&D capabilities, our new developments reflect these experiences in order to meet our customers’ demands.