Under the leadership of the Turkish Defence Industry Presidency, the “324 mm Torpedo Development Project” was initiated to meet the light class torpedo requirement of the Naval Forces Command. With ORKA, which will be developed by ROKETSAN as the prime contractor, foreign-source dependency in this area will come to an end.
In the last days of the year, the good news of starting a local and national project came from the Turkish defence industry, which continued its activities with no interruption despite the pandemic in 2020. Under the leadership of the Defence Industry Presidency (SSB), the “324 mm Torpedo Development (ORKA) Project” was initiated to meet the light class torpedo needs of the Naval Forces Command. President of the Defence Industry Presidency, Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir, representatives of the Ministry of National Defence, SSB, ROKETSAN, and ASELSAN attended the signing ceremony held in SSB.
With the project, the ORKA torpedo weapon system to be used against submarines from naval aircraft and above water platforms, which are in the inventory of the Naval Forces Command and can be taken into the inventory, will be developed locally and nationally. ORKA, which will have precise guidance, navigation, advanced search, and attack capabilities, will provide high efficiency on the target with its resistance to jamming.
ROKETSAN’s experience in the AKYA Torpedo Project, which is planned to be delivered next year, will be transferred to the ORKA Project. In the ORKA Project, besides the main contractor ROKETSAN, ASELSAN will take place as the main subcontractor. ORKA will add strength as a national element to the power of the Turkish Armed Forces in the protection of the Blue Homeland.
President of the Defence Industry Presidency Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir said, “We are accelerating our work on the basis of our President’s promise that we will work twice as fast in the defence industry. It is not the time to stop, every passing day is valuable. When our security forces need something, we have to procure it ourselves, instead of buying it from outside. Therefore, as in every project, our companies that will carry out the project will speed up the time. ORKA will also save us from foreign-source dependency in this field. I wish success to all the team that will work on the project, and hope that their efforts will continue to increase”
Source: TurkishDefenceNews.com