UNIDEF Sets New Strategy for the Next Decade as It Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary: Develop, Delve, Share
UNIDEF was established to elevate the Turkish firearms sector to higher levels and subsequently kickstarted many successful domestic and international projects regarding weapon integration, celebrating its 10th anniversary this November.
UNIDEF Sets New Strategy for the Next Decade as It Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary: Develop, Delve, Share
UNIDEF was established to elevate the Turkish firearms sector to higher levels and subsequently kickstarted many successful domestic and international projects regarding weapon integration, celebrating its 10th anniversary this November. Just one month after its establishment in November 2013, the company enjoyed the limelight by securing a project to integrate the M134 Minigun into the Turkish Air Force Command's AS532 Cougar helicopters. UNIDEF developed weapon mounts for different helicopter platforms using domestic and national resources as it continued this success, as well as for a limited number of land and sea vehicles, creating a product family in this niche. Cem Kurter, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of UNIDEF, emphasised that the company will focus more on enhancing existing products with other capabilities in the future, rather than developing new products, with the following words: “In the next 10 years, we will work on enhancing our current systems, either for direct sales or for integrating them with other systems to sell them.”
CANiK News: As UNIDEF celebrates its 10th anniversary in November, could you briefly tell us about the processes leading to UNIDEF's foundation and its initial steps after its establishment?
Cem KURTER: The founders of UNIDEF are Khan Arms and Samsun Yurt Savunma (SYS), and the partners of the respective companies, Burak İlgün and Cahit Utku Aral, knew each other from the sector, yes, but also on our school days. When our efforts in the sector matured enough, we came together, and after about two years of brainstorming and preparation, decided to establish a partnership in the defence and aerospace sector. We wanted to elevate the Turkish firearms sector to higher levels. We decided to establish UNIDEF in November 2013, to integrate the firearms sector into the defence and aerospace sector as a whole. One month after our establishment, the Turkish Air Force Command initiated a Minigun integration project to arm its AS532 Cougar helicopters in its inventory. This development was proof that our preparations and forecasts for establishing UNIDEF were correct. We were a small team but we worked tirelessly with an extraordinary work tempo and managed to submit our bid by December 30. A few weeks later, in January 2014, we learned that we had won the tender and the project was awarded to us. This was a turning point for us.
UNIDEF: A Dream Made Reality
CANiK News: Can you describe the establishment of UNIDEF as “a dream made reality”?
Cem KURTER: Yes, it's accurate to say it was “a dream made reality.” As you know, the defence and aerospace sector covers a broad spectrum involving different scientific fields and engineering capabilities, and the firearms sector has not been fully integrated into this realm, not just in Türkiye but across the globe, and that is precisely where our dream was. One cannot easily integrate a firearm into another platform without work, and as such, this problem kept the capabilities at a lower level. Our dream was about elevating these capabilities and integrating them into the defence and aerospace industry. This first project became the realisation of that dream.
CANiK News: Where are you currently in your ongoing project to arm the CH-47 Chinook helicopters?
Cem KURTER: We designed mounts and ammunition boxes for the left window and right door of the helicopter in this project, which was started to enhance the self-defence capabilities of CH-47 Chinook helicopters serving in the Turkish Special Forces Command and Turkish Army Aviation Command. Due to the stringent standards and constraints in air platforms, unique designs are needed for each mount. Accordingly, we created special interfaces and produced bolt and nut connections for the mounting points. We are in the serial production phase for the left window mount, while the mount designed for the right door has reached the prototype stage. After completing the testing processes, the mass serial production for the door mount will begin in a few months. Our design for the CH-47 was very innovative, as it was tailor-made for specific needs and requirements, and it will be a great option for other CH-47s in the global market.
Fighting Against Embargoes
CANiK News: Türkiye had experienced explicit or implicit embargoes over the past years, and you were hard at work to solve some of these procurement issues. Could you share your thoughts on UNIDEF's past 10 years, including these aspects?
Cem KURTER: For a time, we were almost the sole source for importing 7.62 mm light machine guns and 12.7 mm heavy machine guns needed by various users in Türkiye. Back then, the Turkish defence and aerospace industry was not yet able to produce these firearms. Then the 15 July incident happened, and our country faced a series of embargoes, some were explicit, others were implicit. Our export permissions were denied. This was a crucial period as terrorist activities in Türkiye had increased, creating a security vulnerability. As a company, we took the initiative to conduct lobbying activities in Washington and informed the relevant authorities in our country. We conducted an open communication and coordination process with all related parties and played a role in lifting these short-term embargoes, allowing the continued sale of the needed weapons to our country. Even though not widely known, these were very crucial, strategic developments.
Advancing Towards Remote-Controlled Weapon Systems Step by Step
CANiK News: How did UNIDEF move towards remote-controlled weapon systems?
Cem KURTER: One of our biggest goals when we founded UNIDEF was to develop the technological base of our country regarding firearms. We were working extensively on models such as licensed production or buying an entire technology, patent or design and manufacturing it here in Türkiye. In this process, we met AEI Systems. We had our eye on AEI Systems' low-recoil 30x113 mm VENOM LR gun. When the owners of AEI Systems mentioned they wanted to sell the company, we expressed our partner SYS's interest in acquiring it. This process concluded with SYS purchasing AEI Systems after about two years of negotiations. SYS commencing development on the CANiK M2 QCB 12.7 mm heavy machine gun was another influence for us in this direction. We saw that heavy firearms of 12.7 mm and above calibres could not easily be sold on their own with our interactions with end-users. They wanted the firearm to be part of a system. Gradually, we started moving towards remote-controlled weapon systems, which led to the establishment of UNIROBOTICS in 2020 eventually.
UNIDEF Focused on Creating Force Multiplier Solutions
CANiK News: With all these developments in mind, could you share your views on how UNIDEF positions itself today, why it has chosen this positioning, and what this positioning brings to both the company and the sector?
Cem KURTER: Looking at our current structure, we have the armaments from SYS and AEI Systems and stabilised weapon stations from UNIROBOTICS. From now on, UNIDEF aims to move towards higher system integration projects that create force multipliers with these capabilities. We will focus on integration projects by developing our competencies in hardware, software, electronics, mechanics, etc., together with our stakeholders. We have shifted our entire engineering team to UNIROBOTICS in this context, and UNIDEF is now entirely focused on business development, marketing, sales, and system integration solutions.
"We’re Not Looking for Adventure"
CANiK News: What are your plans and expectations for the second decade of UNIDEF?
Cem KURTER: We have invested heavily in UNIROBOTICS over the last three years, and products like TRAKON, TRAKON TARGAN, TRAKON Lite, and TRAKON Crew remote-controlled weapon system family started becoming a reality. As such, we want to focus on selling these products for the next decade, either as standalone units or integrated with other systems to act as a force multiplier, and thus, achieve our revenue targets. We aim to accumulate capital with the lowest cost and highest profitability; that's our main goal. A private company should primarily focus on being profitable. It's tough to achieve this with engineering-focused corporate structures, as clearly seen today. Profitability is very important. Despite its recent popularity, the defence and aerospace sector is a risky sector. Our customer base is not in the millions, but rather can be counted by the hands of a fire team; we need to be very careful. In this context, our goal is to capture a large market share with our products. We’re not looking for adventure at UNIDEF and UNIROBOTICS. I believe the reason why Turkish companies are unable to reach desired export targets is producing too many products and projects. We need to deepen our focus, and that's what we want to do.
For the next decade, I want to emphasise that we will work on the standalone sales of our current systems or integrate them with other systems for sale. We aim to create bigger systems with industry stakeholders through project partnerships and market them together. We see great importance in project partnerships to avoid redundancy, use our resources efficiently, and leverage our connections for mutual benefit.
Currently, Africa and the Far East are prominent in our export target markets. The European market, especially in maritime systems, is starting to catch our attention. We seem poised to create a competitive advantage and put ourselves under the limelight in Germany, the UK, and France in the European market. Entering the South American market will take some time due to geographical distance and the hegemony of major powers.
We would like to thank Cem Kurter, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of UNIDEF for taking the time to answer our questions, and for providing us with such valuable information.
