(Zaman) - The size of Turkeys ground forces will be reduced in an effort to operate more efficiently without losing combat capability, said Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, who will become chief of the Turkish army as of August 30, 2006.
Gen. Buyukanit was interviewed by this months issue of Defense & Aerospace magazine about the armys plans to modernize the Turkish ground forces by 2014, reports Trend.
The support staff of ground forces will gradually be reduced by 20 to 30 percent, and its structure of power will be modernized over the next few years, and it will be outfitted with the latest weaponry, said Gen. Buyukanit.
The geo-political position of Turkey calls for undertaking tasks for maintaining peace, as well as war on the one hand, and powerful and updated ground forces on the other, said Gen. Buyukanit.
The prognosis for 2014 is that the Turkish armys ground forces will reduce in size, but increase their proficiency through modernization and quality, asserted Gen. Buyukanit.
Depending on future technologies, our military hardware and equipment will become all the more sophisticated, said Gen. Buyukanit, adding that future military operations will be carried out with a greater dependency on know-how and adherence to certain principles.
This calls for personnel with a higher level of training, and with a higher consciousness of professionalism, said Gen. Buyukanit. The future aim of Turkish ground forces is to reach a point where we can fight against conventional and asymmetric threats as well as risks; where we can carry out persistent operations under any circumstances, day or night; where we can make military decisions faster than the enemy; and where we can assert our might with better standards of quality and organization.
Division 15 would be abolished in accordance with the modernization program first introduced in 2004.
The number of military personnel promoted in 2005 from a position of major general to that of general was reduced to two from three. In addition, troops in Sarikamis, where the 9th Division was stationed until its abolishment last year, were combined with other military divisions.
Military brigades in Kirklareli, Cankiri, Kagizman and Ercis were all closed down last year in line with the scaling down program.