SDT Space and Defense Technologies, whose public offering application has been approved and will collect demand on December 28-29, will implement new investments and projects with the resources to be generated in this process. Ömer Korkut, General Manager of SDT Space and Defense Technologies AŞ, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that they have positioned themselves as a mid-segment company in the Turkish defense industry. Stating that they aim to continue the stable growth that SDT has achieved in the last 5 years, Korkut stated that they operate in a closed area of 4700 square meters in total, but that this is not enough for them due to the growth. Korkut stated that, based on this need, they allocated a land of 30 thousand square meters in Ankara Aerospace and Aviation Specialized Organized Industrial Zone (HAB) in August 2020 and started the project work. Korkut stated that they plan to implement this investment by using 70 percent of the funds to be obtained from the public offering. Korkut said that they have completed the project design of the facility with a closed area of 28 thousand square meters, they have obtained the construction permit, they started construction in a short time and after 2 years they aim to gather the activities they still carry out in 3 different campuses under one roof in HAB. Explaining that there will be a production and integration hall in one part of the facility, and management and engineering offices in the other part, Korkut said, “All the plans have been drawn, the interior design planning continues. With the motivation of being a technology company, it is modern. It will be a complete facility where we can complete the integration works without the need for additional space.” said. Korkut said that they foresee an investment of 300 million liras for the facility at today’s prices, and that the employment of 230 people can increase up to 380 in the new facility. Export door opened in satellite and space field Emphasizing that satellite and space studies are very important for SDT and are among their main fields of activity, Korkut stated that they are a subcontractor of ASELSAN on the Göktürk-1 satellite, and they undertake the installation and software responsibility of the ground stations. Explaining that they continue to support the ground station, Korkut said: “During this period, SDT has gained a lot of experience. The installation of this station, the selection of its equipment, the determination of its technologies, the downloading of satellite images to the ground, workflows, storage, cataloging, archiving and all similar software. Significant knowledge was accumulated during the development process. We have been selected as the sub-contractor of TAI in the Göktürk Renewal Satellite Project. Our negotiations have come to an end, we are about to sign a contract with TAI in a very short time. Besides the projects in Turkey, the relationship with Italian Telespazio from the first project, It has also expanded with offset agreements. For the last 4 years, we have been providing software support and software projects for Telespazio’s works related to European Space Agency satellites. We finished one project in 2020. We started a second project in 2020. Maintenance maintenance of the projects we have completed very recently, in addition, new a software development We got another order. This is all new technology. It was a project that produced mission software that could control multiple satellites from a single ground station. Later, we developed software in the cloud version of this project. These are projects used in the field by the European Space Agency. It seems that this association with Telespazio will continue. On the ground station side, we continue our activities with our business partners in Turkey and abroad in satellite and space projects. This software we made to Italy and Telespazio is also an export for us.” Korkut expressed that it is important for them to take part in satellite projects to be exported from Turkey. Processing satellite images and providing services in this regard is a serious income. Mentioning that he created the center, Korkut explained that they have producted image evaluation, processing, automatic target identification and similar capabilities with artificial intelligence technologies under the name “Görgüç”. Korkut stated that they have turned their activities in the fields of satellite ground station software and installation, as well as processing and evaluation of images into products, and that their export-oriented initiatives have also become products. Said it was continuing. Radar and electronic warfare capabilities for national aircraft Pointing out that they are the subsystem supplier for most of Turkey’s national air platforms, Korkut said that their products serve on many platforms including Anka, Atak and Hürkuş. Korkut made the following assessments: “We would like to take part in new platforms as well. We have a share of work in National Combat Aircraft. As a subcontractor of TÜBİTAK MAM, we work in Life Support Systems. Both in new platforms and in the modernization of existing platforms, for example “We will have software efforts and products for new versions of SAR radars. We are conducting R&D activities to position mobile versions of our electronic warfare capabilities on these platforms. We plan to use 20 percent of the funds we will obtain from the public offering in such unique projects.” Natural gas will be released digitally first Ömer Korkut also gave information about his efforts to reflect the capabilities acquired in the defense industry to civilian areas. Stressing that they aim to increase exports and increase the income from non-defense sectors to a certain level by 2025 in order to minimize the impact of economic fluctuations and market-related problems, Korkut stated that these efforts took their first fruit last year. In this context, Korkut stated that the seismic data processing software used by TPAO is of foreign origin and that the institution opened a project to nationalize it and SDT won the tender. Stating that they signed the 36-month project in August last year, Korkut said: “We are about to complete the first phase of the project. It will enable the processing of seismic data in the sea and on the land, which will enable the processing of seismic data from sensors, cataloguing, archiving, opening, correct monitoring at the right time and similar activities. We took part in TPAO’s project by combining our capabilities in SAR signal processing and the transportation, cataloging, archiving and streamlining of voluminous data on the Göktürk satellite. Energy is an important and value-added sector for Turkey and the world. After the project, this time the Offshore Technology Center, a subsidiary of TPAO, produces natural gas in the Sakarya gas field, in the Black Sea, at the beginning of 2022. In this infrastructure, we also have a project that realizes the digital twin of the entire operation, including ship movements, the pipeline laid from the natural gas well to the shore. complete this year caz. The capabilities we developed in the fields of satellite-space, SAR, and information technologies were met in the field of energy this time. We will try to continue these 2 projects.” Technology in airplanes lands on trains Expressing that they also have transportation and rail systems on their agenda, Korkut stated that they have released a product to develop a data recording system similar to the data recording system used in air platforms to rail systems, and they have carried out trials on the TCDD locomotive. Korkut also noted that their activities continue to develop various solutions such as in-cab announcement systems. Ömer Korkut stated that another area they will concentrate on in the future will be civil aviation. Korkut made the following assessment: “We think that we are now very close to the middle segment with the work we carry out at the SME level. Our investments and public offering initiatives will guide us towards this goal. SDT, which was a subcontractor or developed subsystems for the last 5 years, has now become the main contractor in the projects of the Defense Industry Presidency. “We have completed projects as the main contractor in projects such as simulation projects, pod mass production projects, aircraft arrester systems, and we have started to achieve export success. I hope this development and steady growth will continue in the coming period. Our work will continue in this direction.”
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