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FNSS Savunma Sistemleri A.Ş. is a joint venture company established by NUROL Holding of Turkey and BAE Systems Land & Armaments L.P. of USA. FNSS is a leading manufacturer and supplier of tracked and wheeled armored combat vehicles and weapon systems for the Turkish Armed Forces and Allied Armed Forces.
The company was established in 1988 to manufacture 1698 Armored Combat Vehicles (ACV’s) for Turkish Armed Forces under a direct commercial contract (1st package ACV) with the Undersecretariat of Defense Industries (SSM). The facilities situated on a total area of 280.000 square meters in Gölbaşı, Ankara started the production in August 1991. The 1st package ACV contract has successfully been completed in 2000.
410 people work at FNSS’s Ankara facilities as of March 2011. Additional 200 are employed in its operations outside Turkey.
FNSS has a full range of Family of Tracked Armored Combat Vehicles (ACV). The ACV is a combat proven medium weight, low silhouette armored vehicle capable of high mobility in all kinds of terrain and amphibious operations on rivers and lakes. ACV is designed with the necessary mounting provisions to transform the vehicle into various vehicle configurations as per the user requirements. The Advanced Armored Personnel Carrier (AAPC) chassis forms the base vehicle for all other members of the family of vehicles.
Based on the experience gained in the development and production of ACV family of vehicles, FNSS has developed the ACV-S family of vehicles which provides higher internal usable volume and payload. ACV-S offers the latest developments in high value vehicle performance while maintaining commonality with the ACV family of vehicles. The ACV-S can be provided in a number of different configurations including but not limited to tracked logistic carrier, fighting vehicles with one or two-man turrets, mortar vehicles fitted with 120mm mortars, command post, recovery, fitters, air defense and combat engineering variants. ACV and ACV-S vehicles have proven themselves, in high intensity operations, peace support/keeping and asymmetrical type threats and they are in service with a number of Armies World Wide.
Besides manufacturing new vehicles, FNSS is also capable of upgrading and modernizing aged M113 Family of Vehicles to M113A350/300 configurations including improvements to survivability and lethality.
FNSS’s another capability is the development and production of turrets and weapon stations. The company currently offers a One-Person (Sharpshooter) turret, which is fitted with a 25-mm Bushmaster cannon and a co-axially mounted 7.62 mm MG. 40 mm and 12.7 mm configurations are also avaliable. The weapons are fully stabilized providing full “shoot on the move” capability and incorporate modern high performance sighting systems. The company is currently developing a 25/30mm remote controlled turret together with Turkish military electronics company Aselsan.
FNSS has developed a new generation of Wheeled Armored Combat Vehicles with special emphasis on Mobility, Protection, Payload and Growth Potential. The vehicles employ the latest design and technologies from the commercial automotive industries (COTS) which have been Militarized (MCOTS) to meet the performance and durability of modern military operational requirements. The vehicles are based on a system of vehicles to include a 6X6 and 8X8, using significant commonality of each vehicle sub systems thereby reducing ‘Logistic Foot Print’ and Life Cycle Costs. FNSS has named the vehicles as PARS which in Turkish means Leopard.
The company has the capability to meet the specific configuration requirements of its customers by incorporating variety of weapon stations and mission systems tailored to meet their operational requirements.
FNSS has also considered vendor base development important and within a very short period of its establishment, it has made training, system, apparatus and machinery investments in over 100 companies to enable them to achieve NATO military specifications' quality level requirements. As a result, FNSS has achieved a local content rate above 80%, excelling its commitment and making a great contribution to the development of Turkish defense industry sector.
FNSS has certifications of AQAP-2110, the highest NATO quality assurance system and, ISO 9001-2008, obtained from Lloyd's of UK.
Vehicles manufactured by FNSS were used for thousands of kilometers by Turkish Contingencies serving with the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, and has received admiration of the Turkish Soldier.
FNSS signed in October 2000 with the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, the 2nd package of Armored Combat Vehicles contract covering production of additional Advanced Armored Personnel Carriers for Turkish Armed Forces. Production and deliveries under this contract have already been completed.
In addition to serving the Turkish Armed Forces, a significant objective of FNSS is to provide exports opportunities to Turkey. FNSS established its first exports relation with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 1997. More than 100 vehicles in different configurations were built and delivered to UAE under the agreement signed. Deliveries under this contract have been completed. The company has been providing after sales services to the UAE Land Forces since the delivery of the vehicles.
FNSS signed a contract with Malaysia in 2000 for its second exports project to manufacture and deliver different types of Armored Combat vehicles. The Project was completed in 2004. Under this contract the technology transfer has also been made to the said country. A new contract for production of 120mm Mortar Vehicles based on ACV-S and the contract for the production of some additional Armored Combat Vehicles were signed in the first half of 2008. The deliveries of ACV-S vehicle have been completed. The deliveries of Armored Combat Vehicleswill be completed within the first half of 2011. In early 2011, FNSS signed the largest defense system export contract achieved so far in the Turkish Defense Industry in one go in Malaysia. The agreement signed with FNSS’s local partner DEFTECH covers the design and development of 257 each 8x8 wheeled armored vehicles in 12 different variants for Malaysian Armed Forces. The vehicles will be based on FNSS’s PARS 8x8 wheeled armored vehicle.
The company has exported an Armored Recovery Vehicle and recently completed the deliveries of upgraded Armored Personnel Carriers to Philippines Armed Forces. FNSS has also modernized and upgraded AIFV and M113 vehicles for Bahrain Defence Force.
FNSS signed a contract with Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) in 2007 for the modernization of several hundreds of M113 vehicles in Saudi Arabia. Deliveries under this contract will be completed in 2010. As a continuation of this program, FNSS signed a new contract with Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) in 2010 for the modernization of additional several hundreds of M113 vehicles in Saudi Arabia. The company has also previously delivered some Armored Command Post Vehicles based on ACV-S to RSLF.
In addition to vehicle sales, FNSS realizes sales of spare parts, kits, subsystems and logistics packages. In this context, the company signed a long term contract with Belgium Army to provide logistics and technical support to their existing M113 and AIFV type vehicles. FNSS also exported parts and subsystems to the countries such as Canada, USA, Chile, Australia, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE and continues sales to NAMSA (NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency).
FNSS was selected by SSM to develop and manufacture Mobile Amphibious Assault Bridge to meet the need of Turkish Land Forces (TLF). The contract between SSM and FNSS was signed in January 2007. The Amphibious Assault Bridge platform use main automotive components of FNSS designed PARS 8x8 Wheeled Armored Vehicle. The prototype vehicles were manufactured and qualification tests started.
FNSS signed a contract with SSM within the first half of 2009, for the development and production of Amphibious Armored Combat Earthmover to meet the requirement of TLF. Design phase was completed and manufacturing of the prototype vehicle started.
FNSS is one of the certified R&D centers in Turkey.
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