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O Z B R O J E N É S I L YS R“For successful export of military equipment a partner in target country is necessary - the partnerwhich is involved in product manufacture, organises the training of operators, providesservicing and takes care for necessary lobbing too. This is the way we follow.The Slovak armed forces will remain our first-rank customer with the understanding thatif we fail to estimate their future needs and do not offer them optimal solutions, then our chanceson foreign markets are just minimal,” said Jiri VICENIK, PhD., the chairman of the board of directors anddirector general of Vojensky technicky ustav, a.s. (Military Technical Institute, Inc.) in Liptovsky Mikulas.We want to be successful in bothdomestic and foreign marketApplied research, development and small batchproduction of military equipment and systemsrank among the institute’s core activities. Wherein the Slovak armed forces can be found yourlogo on products or equipment manufactured inyour company?Over the past years up to now we are deliveringand distributing our products to the NBC troops.Over a long time there is also used in the Slovakarmed forces the ARIS (Army Radiation MonitoringInformation System) , chemical reconnaissancevehicle BRDM-2RCH-M "RUDA", stand-offdetectors of Chemical Warfare Agents (CWA) DD-CWA in both tripod and vehicle modifications, detectorsof toxic industrial chemicals DD-TIC andNBC mobile command posts VYMOB. Air defencetroops use our TATRAPAN PVO system and largequantities of material we have also delivered tomilitary medical sector such as antidote productsTRANSANT, PANPAL, individual first-aid kits, individualmedical packets for soldiers and paratroopers,and other special sets for field hospitals.Compared with other suppliers to Slovak armed forcesour institute makes deliveries of Slovak developmentand Slovak-made products only.Which of your products is the biggest "hit"promising the success on Slovak market?Our new product ABRaCAdeveloped for the Slovakarmed forces is the automatic NBC warning systemwith radio data transfer intended to protect militarycamps and bases, consisting of one central unitand a few satellite units located at some distancearound the camp. The satellite is powered from anaccumulator, equipped with the respective sensors,meteorological station and maintains communicationwith the central unit through radio signals. Wemanufactured and tested the first ABRaCA systemat the beginning of this year and this product attractedat the IBEB 2008 fair a lot of attention.Our Institute still concentrates on research in thefield of stand-off detection of CWA and based onachieved results we offer to the Slovak armed forcesmodernisation of the DD-CWA detectors whichprimarily consist of the installation of new softwarewhich improves the system operation. In this respectwe also have quite new information that theDD-CWA can, after certain adaptations, accomplishalso stand-off detection of biological warfare agentswhich functional feature significantly boosts thesystem’s value.You certainly have an ambition to penetrate alsoforeign markets. Not long ago you exhibited atthe Eurosatory 2008 in Paris, the biggest showof this kind in Europe. Did you succeed there?In fact there exists no international market withmilitary equipment comparable with that we knowfor example in the field of cars. Military equipmentis not purchased based on an instant decision of anindividual but on long-term armament plans ofgovernment bodies and this situation is the sameboth in Slovakia and in the rest of the world.You can not sell even a unique product if its procurementis not planned in advance and money isnot reserved in the budget. In addition, for moresophisticated products there must be available socalledIntegrated Logistics Support (ILS) directlyin product destination country.Main purpose of our participation in Eurosatory2008 was to establish contacts and create conditionsfor sale of the DD-CWA detectors for whichit is primarily necessary to bring the detector to attentionof competent officials at the defence ministriesof individual countries and subsequently toput the unit into armament plans. To achieve thisgoal our personal presence and adequate publicityand presentation of the product were necessary.Furthermore a partner in target country shall befound - i.e. the company which will provide notonly the said ILS but also necessary lobbing. Weachieved both these goals and the interest in theDD-CWA, in particular in live demonstrations thereof,exceeded our expectations. We use such theoccasions also to spread professional informationin this field, i.e. we explain to military experts thepotentials and limitations of stand-off detection aswell as differences between "active" and "passive"stand-off detectors.It is a matter of fact that NATO standards arevery stringent. Are you able to comply withtheir requirements? What’s your certificationstrategy?Our institute is certified on Quality AssuranceSystem in accordance with ISO 9001: 2000 and alsowith the Slovak Defence Standard AQAP 2110:2007 on conformity with the contract requirements.Even in the past the Slovak army had had to workunder very stringent quality management systemand some standards were strict may be more thannecessary, but they were still binding. Therefore,transition to NATO standards was not so painful anddifficult for us. Specialists from our institute aremembers of various NATO workgroups and theyprofessionally contribute in the field of standards’creation and formulation of requirements towardsnew technologies. As regards the product qualityour people and staff constitute the most precious assetfor us - specialists who have knowledge and experiencein the field of special systems and technologies.Fundamental knowledge can be acquiredat schools, the experience can be gained in practiceand the best experience in a team consisting oftrue professional experts, otherwise the expertisecan be reached over a much longer time period andfor much higher cost.www.mti.sk32