TÜBİTAK Defence Industries Research and Development Institute (SAGE) has implemented Turkiye's first submarine missile test infrastructure (DATA). As a test platform, DATA can test and simulate submarine munitions without requiring a submarine.
The Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council Of Turkey ) President Professor Hasan Mandal and TÜBİTAK SAGE Institute Director Gürcan Okumuş attended the opening ceremony.
Minister Varank stated that DATA is designed, implemented and produced by Turkish engineers and technicians and said, "DATA will accelerate the development processes of important munitions. From now on, the world will talk about the ammunition that our submarines will use."
DATA infrastructure is developed under the coordination of SAGE with cooperation with the Ministry of Defence, the Defence Industry Agency (Formerly Presidency of Defence Industries) and the Navy.
The testing of submarine munitions will be conducted without a submarine. A system with a 21-inch standard submarine launching station, identical to Gür and Preveze class submarines" launch system, was developed. DATA allows launching munition at a depth of 60 meters underwater. While the many sensors provide a safe and controlled test environment in DATA, shooting takes place quickly and at a low cost. Moreover, there is no need for the submarine to be planned for this mission for shooting.
Director Okumuş has made his remarks after the ceremony and stated that they developed the same launch system of the Gür and Preveze class submarines after a long period of work and said, "We are engineering the system with the contributions of our domestic engineering companies, both mechanical, electromechanical and control systems."
