Turkey Exports More than 500 Armored Vehicles, Weapon Systems to Qatar

Turkey has sold of approximately 400 Ejder Yalçın 4x4 armored combat vehicles, more than a hundred NMS 4x4 light armored vehicles, and weapon systems that are to be placed on these vehicles to Qatar.

Within the scope of the contract signed by Turkish defense industry firm Nurol Makina Sanayi (NMS) to satisfy the needs of the Qatar Armed Forces, hundreds of armored vehicles as well as many defense industry products will be exported for the first time, Anadolu Agency reported Sunday.

According to information received from defense industry sources, Nurol has had successful results for the defense industry in contract negotiations with Qatar.

Within the scope of the contract, approximately 400 Ejder Yalçın 4x4 armored combat vehicles produced by Nurol, as well as more than a hundred NMS 4x4 light armored vehicles will be exported.

Ejder Yalçın armored combat vehicles, which were exported to Tunisia for the first time in March, continued its export success after a memorandum of understanding was signed with Uzbekistan on the direct procurement of 24 vehicles and the joint production of 1,000 others.

On the other hand, NMS 4x4s will be exported for the first time seven months after its launching, being on the defense inventory of a country for the first time.

Qatari procurement authorities negotiated with Nurol on Ejder Yalçın 4x4 armored combat vehicles. At the same time, they received information about NMS vehicles, and following assessments, they decided to include both vehicles in their inventory. Ejder Yalçın and NMS vehicles, which were displayed in rehearsals for Qatar National Day events for the first time with desert camouflage, were disclosed at the military parade organized in the event.

Various weapon systems to be placed on the vehicles are also firsts in terms of exports carried out by ASELSAN, the Turkey defense electronic systems producer.

SARP-DUAL, one of the recent members of ASELSAN's Remote Controlled Weapon System will be exported for the first time.

In addition to the main weapons, the SARP-DUAL can be fitted with a 7.62-millimeter machine gun as an auxiliary weapon.

SARP-DUAL, developed by ASELSAN completely domestically at the beginning of the year, is a weapon system capable of applying advanced ballistic solutions, computer-controlled fire control functions, automatic target tracking and shooting in motion. It can be directed manually in battle situations when necessary. The anti-tank missile launcher system, which was last exhibited at the Gulf Defense and Aviation Fair in Kuwait, will have its first export success along with other vehicles.

Designed to minimize user interaction, the system has computer-controlled fire control capability.

The modular structured anti-tank guided missiles like Cornet, Hellfire, Javelin, Shershen and OMTAS can be fired from the tower. RF or laser markers can be placed on the tower according to the guidance system of selected missiles. The number of missiles can be changed according to user requests. In addition to missiles, it is possible to integrate 7.62-milimeter and 12.7-milimeter machine guns and 25-milimeter cannons for providing close protection.

ASELSAN's other products for export will be the IGLA missile launching system, which uses IGLA and IGLA-S as basic weapon and provides effective solution against unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles with computer-controlled, fixed and rotary wing aircrafts. Thanks to its fast and precise target position detection capability, it has shorter reaction time, higher firepower and higher hit performance than MANPADS configurations.