TURKISH UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (TİHA) PROGRAM : THE ROAD AHEAD
JUNE 2, 2004
By Founder of EWS
Turkish Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (TİHA) program has been a very active project under intense study by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and government procurement offices for over a decade. TAF’s interest in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) dates back to 1987 and this long-term project gained considerable amount of acceleration ever since due to its versatility, low-risk and low-cost solution to a number of reconnaissance and surveillance needs of the Turkish Military. This article will summarize overall content of the program spanning from the early years upto this time and will suggest a viable future road map to maximize operational effectiveness and industrial participation by minimizing technical and program risks and by fully utilizing local industrial capability.

First phase of the program resulted in two direct procurement contracts in 1992 for purchase and deployment of two separate systems. One of the systems was Falcon 600 of AAI and the other was GNAT 750 of GA-Aeronautical Systems. Falcon 600 program was later cancelled because of a number of persistent technical and administrative problems while GNAT 750 contract survived until eventual deployment and field-use under Turkish Land Forces Command. The GNAT system consisting of 6 air vehicles, one permanent control station, another fully mobile control unit and field observation and intelligence dissemination sub-systems is currently deployed in the field and has been in use since 1993. The first phase was intended for operational assessment of the actual system, in-country development of certain sub-systems, identification of technical risks and establishment of industrial sub-structure for proper support of larger TİHA program. During the 1994-2004 period, both Armed Forces and the Turkish industry accumulated considerable amount of experience on UAV systems and developed a number of special sub-systems for operational enchancement of the fielded UAV system. A huge log of “lessons-learned” has been recorded in user and local industry sources.

Turkish Government later issued several Requests for Proposal (RFP) for development of large numbers of UAV systems customized in accordance with changing user requirements and technology, with emphasis on increased local-content. The requirements and quantities of those systems followed a flexible pattern over the years and the number of systems were set at 9 systems (2 strategic and 7 operational systems) in the last RFP. However, foreign manufacturers’ response to these RFPs provided little answers for those requirements calling for increased local contribution. Overall work share left for the Turkish industry was unsatisfactory in terms of both economic and technical value. Summing it all, Turkish Government reached a quite important and critical decision at a recent Executive Committee meeting and cancelled the program as it was, shifting the emphasis from direct procurement or joint production toward local development with participation of Turkish companies experienced in UAV systems and other technical areas of expertise involved. This last move should be considered to be a serious intent for more active participation of the local industry which is extremely beneficient to national interests from a number of perspectives.

Taking into account the requirements set forth in the last RFP and the dominating trends in UAV industry, general architecture of the Turkish UAV system consist of the following sub-systems or components:

 Air vehicle (aircraft consisting of airframe, engine, propulsion, landing gear, fuel system, electrical system, hydraulic/pneumatic systems, flight controls etc.; flight computer, mission computer, avionic systems, data link and payloads)
 Ground Control Station (mobile shelter, mission equipment and software, data link equipment)
 Ground Data Terminal (mobile shelter, mission equipment and software, data link equipment)
 Automatic Landing System (mobile mission equipment and software, data link equipment)
 Remote Video Terminal (rugged enclosure, mission equipment and software, data link equipment)
 Image Exploitation System (mobile shelter, mission equipment and software, data link equipment including satellite communication)
 Other (test and support items)

UAV is a complex system that has components in many diverse technical areas spanning from real-time and distributed computing to communication, ruggedized hardware, transportation and power generating equipment. There is no single local company that is capable of undertaking and handling all aspects of the system therefore responsibilities for the major sub-systems should be allocated among the local industry.

In order to allocate responsibilities among Turkish industry, to maximize local content and to minimize the program risks, a high-level allocation of program work is suggested in Table-1 at the end of the article. Major sub-systems of the UAV program are listed in columns while the functional building-blocks or components are shown in lines.

When we look at the architecture, two major areas of responsibility can clearly be identified. One is the air vehicle and related areas consisting of air vehicle itself, Ground Control Station and Automatic Landing System and the other is ground systems area consisting of Ground Data Terminal, Remote Video Terminal and Image Exploitation System. In order to achieve maximum safety, performance, consistency and reliability, air vehicle and related work should be assigned to a single company, which is designated as Company 1 in the Table. There are two major technology areas in the remaining ground systems consisting of communication and image processing technologies and each should be assigned to two separate companies designated as Company 2 and 3. respectively. When designating Companies 1, 2 and 3, it should be guaranteed that they have the proper core technology corresponding to their area of responsibility. These companies shall also perform all integration work of the major sub-systems and assume overall sub-system responsibility.

There are certain sub-systems or components that can be detached from the overall architecture and given to the responsibility of individual companies. These companies shall work as sub-contractors under Companies 1, 2, 3 as applicable. However, major contractors who assume responsibility of major sub-systems are not expected to sub-contract the core technology related to their area of responsibility. Certain functional areas of expertise span many major sub-systems and therefore could be defined as “common areas”. Such work should be given to the responsibility of a single company specialized in related area. For example, mobile shelter and data link equipment appears in many sub-systems and in order to achieve commonality and scale economy each should be assigned to a single contractor.

Certain high value components such as payloads could be procured from either domestic or foreign manufacturers but there is solid need for integration of these components. Mechanical and electrical integration responsibility should naturally go to the air vehicle manufacturer while electronic and functional integration is another great area of expertise that should be assigned to the mission planning functionality.

System engineering and program management functions span across all the UAV system. Therefore they are the most crucial factors for success of the overall program which are expected to yield proper and detailed decomposition of system architecture for efficient allocation among local companies and should be assigned to the main contractor along with the overall system integration and performance responsibility. Due to it’s ecclectic nature UAV Support Center work should also be assigned to the main contractor.

In summary, UAV system consist of many diverse technical areas of expertise and product spectrum and therefore could best be handled by contribution of local industry as subcontractors under the system engineering, program management and guidance of a single contractor. Major subcontractors are expected to have core technology in small aircraft and flight sciences, data communication systems and image processing and distributed computing technologies. There are a number of other work and product areas that could be allocated other industry in accordance with their expertise and product line. Avionics components, mission computer, payloads, shelter and field devices, data link functionality and equipment, power generating equipment, trucks, other electrical, electronic or mechanical units are but few to mention.