The Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle "ANKA" was rolled out with a ceremony held in capital Ankara on Friday.

Numerous high-level Turkish officials including General Staff Chief Gen. Ilker Basbug, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, Land Forces Commander Gen. Isik Kosaner, Naval Forces Commander Gen. Esref Ugur Yigit, Air Forces Commander Gen. Hasan Aksay and Undersecretary for Defense Industries Murad Bayar attended the ceremony at the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).

Speaking at the ceremony, Defense Minister Gonul said, "Today is a very important day for Turkey's aviation sector and defense industry".

Noting that Turkish defense industry's primary goal was to meet the modern equipment requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) by using the country's own industry, Gonul said the total cost of the modernization projects carried out in Turkey in the last 8 years exceeded 20 billion USD, adding 90 percent of such projects had been assumed by Turkish industrialists.

Describing the unmanned aerial vehicle systems as a strategic area for all countries, Gonul said the resources allocated for the development of these systems increased rapidly within that framework.

Gonul also said that he hoped the development studies on the Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle ANKA would be completed following a successful test flight program and the vehicle would start flights as soon as possible.

Delivering a speech, Undersecretary Bayar said that ANKA was an "operative" level system which was designed and developed with a 107 million USD budget.

Noting that ANKA aimed to be the best in its category, Bayar also said, following the completion of the test program, the system's verified and optimized prototype would be completed and serial production would start in 2011.

The first systems would be delivered in 2012, the undersecretary added.
 

AA