29 Jan 2023; AA: All NATO facilities around the world will soon be using an intelligence infrastructure software developed by a Turkish defense firm.
STM, a Turkish state-run defense company, announced it has secured two major contracts regarding the direction, collection, process, dissemination, and use of intelligence information within NATO.
The decision was taken by the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency), which handles all acquisition, deployment, and maintenance of communications and information systems for the alliance’s leaders and commanders.
STM beat out competition from several leading software companies from NATO member states to land what it said was “one of the largest software development projects ever assigned by NATO to Türkiye.”
STM and the NCI Agency signed two contracts after pre-award negotiations regarding the projects, officially named Intelligence Functional Services (INTEL-FS 2), read a statement issued on Saturday.
“The software that will be developed by STM will support the NATO commands in the direction, collection, process, dissemination, and use of intelligence information,” the company said.
“All NATO Commands and military bases around the world will manage their intelligence flow through the software that STM will develop and modernize.”
The INTEL-FS2 projects are expected to be completed in three and a half years.
Ismail Demir, head of Türkiye’s Defense Industries Presidency, hailed the agreements, which the STM emphasized are “one of the largest contracts won by a Turkish company from the NCI Agency.”
Türkiye has reached the stage of transferring its software competencies to key international institutions and organizations, he told Anadolu.
STM General Manager Ozgur Guleryuz told Anadolu that the firm has a longstanding working relationship with NATO, providing solutions in various areas, particularly software and defense.
STM delivered the NATO Integration Core Project, which will help significantly enhance battlefield situational awareness, and has provided software for command and control units of various countries in Afghanistan over the past 10 years, he said.
The new deal for this “critical software” is one of the largest export projects that Türkiye has ever received from NATO related to software development, Guleryuz asserted.