STM to Produce Local CTD Probe System for Submarine Data with Complete National Resources
STM Defense Technologies Engineering and Trade Inc. will produce 100% local "CTD Probe" systems used to collect data on the physical properties of seawater within the scope of its collaboration with Bahçeşehir University.
According to the statement made by the company, the project supported within the scope of the Technology-Oriented Industrial Move (HAMLE) program of the Ministry of Industry and Technology aims to end external dependency by developing critical devices to be used in the field of oceanography and military platforms with local resources.
The project developed by BAU Innovation and Consultancy Inc. (BAUMIND), a subsidiary of STM and Bahçeşehir University, will ensure that CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) Probe systems that measure the conductivity, temperature and pressure of seawater are equipped with local sensors. In this way, underwater data, which is vital for submarine operations and other military platforms, will be produced completely with national resources for the first time in Turkey.
The CTD Probe product, which was developed in 2022 with the STM-BAUMIND collaboration and successfully passed all tests, will gain a completely domestic status, including sensors, with the support of the HAMLE Program.
It Will Provide Critical Data for Sonar Systems
CTD Probes, which measure the conductivity, temperature and pressure of seawater, calculate the speed of sound underwater using this data. These devices, which can produce the temperature and sound speed profiles required for the correct operation of sonar systems, which are especially critical for submarines, play a vital role in the creation of underwater acoustic maps.
Disposable temperature and sound speed measuring devices provide this data on a depth basis, providing basic data for sonar performance modeling.
It is expected that these domestically developed critical systems will be evaluated in many domestic and international projects, including scientific research activities, especially in the projects that the Turkish Naval Forces Command plans to carry out in the near future.
“Domestic Systems Will Be Used in the Blue Homeland”
STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz, whose views were included in the statement, drew attention to the importance STM attaches to R&D activities and university-industry collaborations, and stated that they see it as a duty to develop systems that are not produced in Turkey with national resources.
Güleryüz said, "In submarine technologies, we had developed the CTD Probe System, which we developed jointly with Bahçeşehir University, with maximum national resources in the past years. We will now also develop the sensors of the CTD Probe system, which has a localization rate of over 60 percent, and the single-use devices that produce seawater temperature and sound speed profiles according to the depth required for the performance of sonar systems." Emphasizing that the foreign origin of critically important systems creates dependency in platform projects, Güleryüz said;
"In case of restrictions and embargoes, the project schedule may be negatively affected. For this reason, we are focusing on critical systems that are not in production and for which we are dependent on abroad. The oceanography devices planned to be developed with the project can be used not only in the military field, but also in many areas such as civil maritime and environmental research. In this way, we will contribute to studies such as the research of underwater resources in the Blue Homeland, the determination of the physical properties of sea water and submarine mapping with systems with a high rate of localization. I congratulate the valuable STM and BAU teams who contributed to the project."
C4DEFENCE