ASELSAN TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

At ASELSAN, the technology leader of the Turkish Defense Industry and a mission company, technology management is carried out in coordination with ASELSAN strategy management processes.

The technologies to be focused on in line with the targets set in the ASELSAN Strategic Plan are reflected in the ASELSAN Technology Roadmap and Investment Plan targets, and are shaped in line with technology analysis and forecasting studies. In this direction, Technology Trend Analysis Reports are prepared, which are analyzed by the world's leading organizations and include emerging technology areas that can be described as breakthroughs and technology trends that will gain importance in the future. With these studies, it is aimed to give a broad perspective on the technologies of the future by examining technologies from the perspective of multiple disciplines, and the relationship of these technologies with ASELSAN technologies is examined and analyzed.

The Technology Roadmap and Investment Plan is a plan prepared with a holistic approach by addressing many planning topics such as product, information asset, process and capacity planning for the studies to be carried out in a five-year period, and includes R&D projects and technological investments that ensure the technological developments targeted to be achieved, and resource needs.

In the ASELSAN Technology Roadmap and Investment Plan, the technologies to be acquired, developed or transferred to subcontractors are categorized under main and sub-technology headings in accordance with the Technology Taxonomy of the Presidency of Defense Industry. Currently, there are more than 160 main technologies and approximately 1000 sub-technologies whose technological development is planned under main technologies.

Technology management activities, equity-funded R&D projects and technological investments carried out by Sector Presidencies are carried out in the light of this plan. Each year, ASELSAN allocates approximately 7% of its turnover for equity-funded R&D projects within this plan.

The technological development targets set out in the Technology Roadmap and Investment Plan are monitored in accordance with the definitions of Technology Readiness Levels used worldwide. Technological development is monitored through Technology Readiness Level measurements as a performance indicator and the measurements are reflected in the scorecard of the sector heads and ASELSAN.

The management, reporting and valuation of the multifaceted data contained in the Technology Roadmap and Investment Plan are systematically integrated with the Enterprise Resource Planning system.

R&D COLLABORATIONS

Our universities are among the most important stakeholders of defense industry organizations whose main capital is highly qualified human resources. In addition to providing trained manpower and training opportunities, our universities are increasingly contributing to the industry's technology development activities. We have many projects that are being developed indigenously within the scope of university- industry cooperation in order to carry out basic research at universities and then industrialize these applications at ASELSAN. In addition, as an activity supporting open innovation, subject-based workshops are organized with the participation of universities, and innovative projects are implemented with the new ideas formed here.

ASELSAN has collaborated with 66 universities to date in order to acquire new technologies and to further improve our existing systems, and a total of 170 million dollars has been transferred to these cooperation projects.

As of 2021, the number of active projects being carried out with universities is 134, with 82 new equity- funded R&D projects initiated in 2021 alone, and cooperation with 26 universities in addition to around 150 SMEs and subcontractors.

In 2021, our efforts to develop the products procured from abroad domestically and nationally continued to increase.

The technology workshops we organized with universities in 2021 within the scope of these studies are given in the table below:

2021 Technology Workshops

History Participants

April 6-7, 2021 ASELSAN Academy - İTÜ

April 15-16, 2021 ASELSAN Academy - Boğaziçi University

May 4, 2021 ASELSAN - Bursa Technical University

May 5, 2021 ASELSAN - Uludağ University

June 3-4, 2021 ASELSAN Academy - Hacettepe University

ASELSAN EQUITY-BASED R&D PROJECTS MANAGEMENT

ASELSAN allocates a significant amount of financial and human resources every year to realize equity- funded R&D Projects, which include original product and system designs resulting from the evaluation of innovative ideas.

In 2018, with a new mechanism established, ASELSAN initiates R&D project proposals to be realized with its own resources after preliminary examinations. The projects are evaluated by discussing all details of these projects with the "R&D Evaluation Committee" consisting of expert referees selected among senior engineering managers and ASELSAN personnel who are experts in their fields.

The criteria for evaluating equity-funded R&D projects include the scope of the system and product targeted in the project, the benefits it will provide to ASELSAN and our country, technical, administrative, infrastructure and investment plans, risks, human resources, the progress of technologies, and the competencies of the resulting designs, products and systems, for each technology to be developed within the scope of the project, there are many topics and parameters such as ASELSAN's joint development plans with universities and industry, the content and objectives of these collaborations, the status of the technology and product in the world, comparison with similar products, if any, commercialization targets, intellectual and industrial rights, and potential customers.

For each of the projects, progress is monitored every six months and a decision is made to continue, and the work is monitored by the Program and Design teams in the Sector Directorates and expert referees until the targeted systems, products and technologies are developed.

In this context, with the establishment of this mechanism in 2018, about 350 equity-financed projects have been realized through these processes in the last 4 years, 82 of which were realized in 2021. In these projects, while developing many new technologies that will shape the defense systems and the future of our country, an ecosystem was formed and many universities and SMEs worked together. Among these projects, about 100 completed projects have added new products to the ASELSAN product family, new system plans for the future have been made and contracts have been signed.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights, which constitute an important part of the intellectual capital of companies, play a critical role in ASELSAN's technological development and innovation-based transformation. Every new technology and innovation developed adds value to ASELSAN.

ASELSAN also has various strategic objectives such as strengthening the protection strategy of ASELSAN's original designs against copying, increasing the number of patent and utility model applications, improving the cost optimization of industrial property rights expenses and commercializing inventions.

In this context until 31.12.2021;

Patent

• A total of 1309 patent applications, including foreign applications, were made for a total of 561 inventions.

• ⦁ 192 Patent applications registered in 465 different applications.

Faydalı Model

• 183 A total of 257 utility model applications, including foreign applications, were filed for utility models.

•127 Utility models were registered in 172 different applications.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Within the scope of ASELSAN digital transformation, it is aimed to prepare ASELSAN for the future with the developing technology and Industry 4.0 concept on the world agenda.

Within the scope of Industry 4.0, activities are carried out to improve, commonize and automate the way of doing business with projects such as Digital Twin, Internet of Things, Big Data and Deep Learning, which will prepare ASELSAN for the future.

With increasing competition in the digital experience era, innovation, sustainability and agility are among the most important issues for companies. ASELSAN has adopted the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) business approach to shorten time to market, reduce errors by increasing quality, and increase profitability by accelerating decision-making processes.

In this direction, the PLM Project, which is considered as an important stage of ASELSAN's digital transformation, is being implemented. In this way, the foundations of the infrastructure and digital environment of the simultaneous engineering method, which enables ASELSAN to work interactively and efficiently from design to production, from program management to integrated logistics support, are being laid.