Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has highlighted the importance of making investments in missile and space technology to enhance Turkey's military might, Anadolu Agency reported.
"If we want to guarantee our perpetuity, especially in the next 100 years, we have to make necessary investments in missile and space technology and have major world-class infrastructures in these two sectors," Davutoglu said Tuesday.
He made the remarks at the inauguration ceremony of the Turkish National Defense Ministry's "Center for Firing, Testing and Assessment" in Karapinar Firing Range in central Konya province. The center has been jointly built by the Defense Ministry, Turkey's leading missile specialist Roketsan and the Turkish Armed Forces.
Turkey will test and evaluate rockets and locally-produced missiles at the new facility, which can also be utilized by friendly countries, including NATO allies if Ankara permits.
The premier said the country was one of the major world powers in conventional war technologies, adding that Turkey combined its civilian and democratic identity with its military power and thus made its mark in the region.
"The instabilities in our region have clearly shown us that Turkey needs to develop its own missile and space technology, and expand its national capacity beyond the one we have as a NATO member," he said.
He stressed that Turkey had the technological capacity and geography to establish the firing, testing and evaluation centers needed by NATO countries to test and practice their weapons.
The premier noted that the Turkish defense industry had been dependent on imports by up to 80 percent until 2002 when his party came to power, but now, thanks to research and development that figure had gone down considerably.
"Economic power and military power are parallel to each other. The fate of a country that cannot produce its own tanks, planes or ships will be in the hands of the one that can," he added.