Menatek Defense Technologies, Menatek, in short, is well known for producing key elements for heavy to light military vehicles, with 48 nations acquiring components from the Istanbul headquartered company. At IDEF 2025 Menatek showcased for the first the main components produced to ensure maintenance of former-Soviet equipment, which also included barrels, a wholly new addition to the company portfolio
Founded 30 years ago by the late Kazım Unal, the company duly celebrated this important birthday during the 17th edition of the Istanbul exhibition, Menatek is focusing its investments on what are considered the most interesting areas business wise. In the past EDR On-Line had the opportunity to discuss armour development with company R&D personnel, however much higher investments were needed to further push research, so the company renounced although the intellectual property on those armour packages is still retained, the same money having been invested in other areas where a medium-size company might become more relevant.
One of those areas was definitely that of producing components for former-Soviet land platforms; the request was high, and not many competitors were present on that market. Since 2018 Menatek started operating in this market, the first nation to be targeted being Ukraine. Not only the company took part in specific exhibitions, but it started building a network, which proved to be of considerable importance when, in February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. “After the war started, we realized we already had a good name, and now Ukraine is a very important market for us,” Mrs. Naz Unal, the company Chief Strategy Officer told EDR On-Line during IDEF. This quickly led Menatek to acquire other customers using former-Soviet equipment, such as for example Azerbaijan, which Army is still mostly based on those systems, as well as Hungary, this Army being however making a considerable modernisation effort. One of the main capabilities of Menatek is the so-called “build-to-print”, where parts are produced based on a technical data pack provided by the OEM or the customer, something of great importance when it is difficult finding spares for legacy platforms on the market. Typically Menatek operates in chassis components, such as suspensions, running gears, powertrain brake systems, heating and cooling systems, lubrication systems, and other subsystems. And this is a 360° capability, as the company provides spares also for western platforms, “and we have reached a total of 48 countries that acquire components from us,” Mrs. Unal underlines.
Until recently Menatek kept the activity on eastern European equipment under wrap, the first time it showcased this new production line being IDEF 2025. While initially the company was producing a limited number of components, now it is capable to produce the whole running gear for most platforms, T-72, T-64, T-55, Shilka, BMPs, and so on. While this was definitely a new business sector, it however remained within the Menatek already existing capabilities in terms of type of work. An even greater surprise was seeing some new barrels, a wholly new production sector for the company. At IDEF the barrels of three 30 mm automatic cannons were visible: that of the 2A72, which arms the BMP-3, the BTR-80A and the BMD-4, that of the 2A42, fitted to many vehicles among which the BMP-2, the BMD-2, the BMD-3 and the BTR-90, and that of the 2A38, the secondary armament of the air defence self-propelled 2K22 Tunguska. In fact the display might have been much more impressive, as Menatek has acquired in recent times the capability to manufacture barrels of all calibres; the company management decided to focus on medium and big calibres, up to 105 mm, at least for the time being. EDR On-Line understood that the company is ready to produce also the barrel of the 2A70, the 100 mm gun-launcher which is the main weapon of the BMD-4, BMP-3 and BTR-90.
“The decision to invest into the barrel business was taken in early 2024,” the company CSO told EDR On-Line, “and in Q4/24 we started production. We are not yet producing the 125 mm, and we are acquiring a new machine that will allow us to go to bigger calibres, a capability that should become reality in 2026.” While not specifying, we understood that this will move the company into artillery systems, therefore 152 mm and 155 mm guns.
Menatek acquired in-house capabilities in the key barrel production processes, for example rifling, buying new dedicated machinery and investing in critical human resources. However for very specific production steps Menatek did strategic partnerships with specialised companies. It is to note that the company is used to do build-to-print business, and also in the case of these barrels the process was clearly described in available documents.
“With the Russian market closed for most other nations and Ukrainian industry working only for its armed forces, only few players are left producing such barrels, and we are becoming one of the good players in that field,” Mrs. Unal explained, adding that if the market share will increase, further investments might be done in the future, bringing in house also some processes that are currently externalised. Of course Menatek would be capable to produce barrels for NATO-standard cannons, the company aiming here only at the export market.
With in-house design and development capabilities, the Istanbul company is already considering bringing added value to the barrel business. The main western barrel producers developed technologies that allow barrels to last up to three times more than their eastern counterparts; therefore Menatek R&D department is currently busy in studying new solutions to improve its barrels, pushing the work one step ahead of the simple build-to-print process.
“This is what we already did in the past, for example with tracks and other components,” Menatek CTO explained, adding that “we are also doing studies on rubber, metals and other key material and elements, in order to extend systems lifetime, in parallel with production.”
Talking rubber, this brings us to a relatively recent addition to the Menatek portfolio, bearings, which fall under the Naz Bearing brand. Work is done in close cooperation with DuPont of Switzerland, Menatek working with that company US, Swiss and Turkish teams. The R&D phase started in 2017, the first product saw the light in 2018, the first vehicle test being finalised one year later. Menatek already entered the railway industry, and following a trademark agreement signed in March 2023 in Geneva Naz Bearings has become also a DupOnt brand, which will certainly help in opening new markets. Menatek CTO underlined that this was the first trademark agreement that DuPont had with a Turkish company.
As bearings are considered a critical safety item, the approval process when dealing with military materiel is time consuming, therefore for the time being the land platform market has not yet expanded. This is why Menatek is planning to enter the aviation market, where it identified a huge gap, only two or three other companies being active in the bearing field. But this will be another story for the coming years.
Another brand is Menatrack, which is focused on track rubber shoes, which are produced for most MBTs of western and eastern origin. The same applying to tracks, which production is rapidly increasing.
With around 100 people in its Istanbul HQs, 55% of them engineers, while production is mostly outsourced to a series of companies that work under Menatek quality control, which allows a certain flexibility in terms of production capacity. The company has recently successfully overcome the AS9100 review, this quality management system standard certificate specific for aerospace and defence industries being expected in August 2025.
With the second generation now at the helm of the company, the company ethos remains the same, as it was underlined at the 30th anniversary celebrations. “We believe in sustainability and in what happens on the field. If we put our name on it, we want to give the best quality because this is what the western side of the world has been doing for so many years. We follow the steps of big corporations, stick to high quality products, with longer lifespan. The company’s own existence and sustainability can only be achieved through this kind of vision,” Mr. Naz Unal concluded, remembering us the company motto, “For the field, on the field.”
Photos by P. Valpolini