Israeli Aerospace Industries says it stood by its obligations and doesn’t know where the problem lies
By Ilan Ben Zion October 28, 2012, 12:27 am 2
UAV Heron in flight (photo credit: IDF Spokesperson)
Ankara is returning three unmanned aerial vehicles purchased from Israel and demanding damages, claiming Israel didn’t uphold the terms of an agreement, Turkish media reported on Saturday.
Turkey decided to send the three Heron drones back after technical problems were found with the aircraft, Turkish news outlet NTV reported. Turkey acquired the drones four years ago as part of a 10 drone, $183 million deal with Israel Aerospace Industries.
According to Israel Radio, Ankara claimed the Israeli government has rejected repeated requests to repair the aircraft, as specified in their agreement. As a result, Turkey has decided to return them to Israel and demand compensation for damages incurred because of Israel’s unwillingness to meet its obligations.
One of the planes crashed while operating on a mission in southeastern Turkey and two others haven’t been used in eight months due to technical issues, Turkey claimed, according to the NTV report.
IAI responded to the report saying that it had stood by all its obligations regarding repair of the aircraft, and that it did not know what the problem was.
Last year, Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported that Turkey returned several Heron drones for repair because of ”engine-related” and “other problems.” After delays in getting them back to Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly complained. Israel then returned the drones and sent technicians to fix them.
It was not clear whether the Herons being returned to Israel were the same ones that required repair in 2011.
via Turkey to return Israeli-made drones, citing technical problems | The Times of Israel.
Obama allowing Turkey to reverse engineer US weaponry
President Obama loves Turkey and its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan so much that he’s decided to let the Turks reverse engineer American weaponry (Hat Tip: Joshua I).
Turkey makes no secret of its desire to bolster its domestic armament industry. And yet President Obama has provided Prime Minister Erdogan with the exact same technology which Turkey now seeks to manufacture. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that Turkey now brags it has reaped billions of dollars during the past few years selling advanced weaponry. It should come as no surprise that Saudi Arabia is Turkey’s best customer.
Providing Turkey with advanced weaponry — Predators, the stealth F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for which Turkey now demands the software codes, or other key platforms — is little different than providing state-of-the-art technology to China. In both cases, the regimes involved will reverse engineer the technology and allow it to be used to kill Americans for both fun and profit.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Turkey
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:10 AM
via Israel Matzav: Obama allowing Turkey to reverse engineer US weaponry.
ANKARA, Jan 16 (KUNA) — Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz said Monday the United States was reluctant to share with his country the defense technology relating to the sophisticated multi-purpose F-35 fighter jets, the fifth generation.
“During my recent visit to the US I asked about defense technology transfer to Turkey, but the US officials said abruptly and openly that we were their rival,” the minister said.
He made the press remarks while opening a school in Ilgin town, Konya province, central Turkey.
Yilmas attributed the US reluctance to share the military hi-tech to the fact that the US, as the world’s major economy, is one of Turkey’s rivals, the same as Germany and France.
Turkey plans to acquire 100 F-35 fighters in the coming ten years at a total value of USD 16 billion to replace the dating F-16 fighters.
Turkey is reportedly in talks with the US to acquire the software code of the remote control system of the fighters before buying two aircraft for training in 2015 as a prelude to a huge deal.
Undersecretary of the Turkish Defense Industries Murad Bayar has recently said Turkey is notinterested in acquiring all the codes, but just those that are the most essential for the plane’s freedom of operation. (end) mm.gb KUNA 162304 Jan 12NNNN
via KUNA : Turkey criticizes US hesitation to transfer defense technology – Military and Security – 16/01/2012.
The US administration agreed in principle almost two months ago for the transfer of information over software source codes of US Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighters to Turkey.
Once the agreement is completed, and if approved by the US Congress, Turkey will have the capability to automatically modify the software source codes of the fighters’ weapons systems with national software source codes, said US sources who asked not to be named.Turkey will become the first nation among 26 to have the F-16s in their inventories and have the ability to receive information on the F-16 fighters’ software source codes — primarily their weapons systems — thereby enabling it to replace them with national software source codes whenever necessary.
Once Turkey and the US complete around 50 pages of technical details over the nature of the US transfer of technology, an agreement should be signed, pending US congressional approval.
The US Congress has long prevented arms transfers to NATO member Turkey, mainly in reaction to its strained ties with Israel.
However, the US administration has as of late sought US congressional authorization for the sale of three AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters to Turkey. This indicates a softening on the part of the congress toward Turkey.
Turkey has a long-standing request for Super Cobras. It has a shortage of these helicopters, required in its ongoing fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists, who have increased their violent attacks as of late.
Meanwhile, it is not clear whether the US administration will seek US congressional authorization for another long-standing Turkish request for the sale of four Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and two armed Reaper UAVs.
However, some of the weapons, including Predators that the US reportedly pledged to transfer to Turkey as it withdraws from Iraq in December of this year, are said to not be subject to the approval of the US Congress. These are weapons the US used during its war in Iraq.
Missile defense link
US sources stated that Washington has agreed in principle to transfer the information mainly concerning the weapon systems of the F-16s so that Turkey can integrate by itself the national software source codes because Turkey has pursued a very persistent policy on the matter.
However, Turkey’s approval to deploy a radar system of the US-supported NATO Missile Defense System on its soil is understood to have played an important role in Washington’s agreement to in principle transfer the software source codes of mainly the weapons systems of the F-16s to Turkey. Turkey agreed last month to host a powerful US-supplied radar system to act as advanced eyes for a layered shield against ballistic missiles coming from outside Europe.
The AN/TPY-2 surveillance radar in Turkey will boost the shield’s capability against Iran, which Washington alleges is seeking to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
“By agreeing to transfer information on F-16 weapon systems so that Turkey could automatically integrate them with national software source codes, the US sought to ease tensions with its NATO ally, which is important in safeguarding US interests in the Middle East. The US also puts strong emphasis on seeing Turkish-Israeli relations normalize,” said the US source.
50 weapons systems on each F-16
Lockheed Martin this year began supplying Turkey with 14 F-16C variants and 16 F-16Ds under a deal signed in May 2007. The total cost of 30 additional F-16s to Turkey is $1.78 billion.
Under a separate agreement signed in April 2005 between Turkey and the US, 213 Turkish F-16s are being upgraded at a cost of $1.1 billion at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in Ankara. Turkey will be able to change the software source codes of the weapons systems on a total of 204 F-16s with national software source codes if a final agreement is reached with the US.
There are 50 different types of weapons systems on each F-16 that are classified.
via Turkey to rewrite software source codes of 204 F-16 fighters.
A strategic missile Topol-M makes an impressive entry into Red Square during the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9, 2011. The Western alliance is encouraging Turkey not to choose Chinese or Russian tenders in an upcoming air defense bid.
NATO may avoid sharing ballistic missiles intelligence with Turkey if the nation decides to buy Chinese or Russian systems for its missile defense program
A strategic missile Topol-M makes an impressive entry into Red Square during the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9, 2011. The Western alliance is encouraging Turkey not to choose Chinese or Russian tenders in an upcoming air defense bid.
A strategic missile Topol-M makes an impressive entry into Red Square during the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9, 2011. The Western alliance is encouraging Turkey not to choose Chinese or Russian tenders in an upcoming air defense bid.
Ankara would have to operate without NATO’s intelligence information on incoming ballistic missiles if it chooses to buy Chinese or Russian systems for its national air and missile defense program, officials of the Western alliance have warned Turkey.
Participating in the ongoing competition to win Turkey’s national air and missile contract are the U.S. partnership between Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, with their Patriot air defense systems; Russia’s Rosoboronexport, marketing the S300; China’s CPMIEC (China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corp.), offering its HQ-9; and the Italian-French Eurosam, maker of the SAMP/T Aster 30. Turkey is planning to make its selection late this year or early next year.
Many Western officials and experts say that since the Russian and the Chinese systems are not compatible with NATO systems, their potential eventual victory might provide them with access to classified NATO information, and as a result may compromise NATO’s procedures.
But despite this criticism, Turkey so far has ruled against expelling the Chinese and Russian options, saying there is no need to exclude them from the Turkish competition.
One Western expert countered that “if, say, the Chinese win the competition, their systems will be in interaction, directly or indirectly, with NATO’s intelligence systems, and this may lead to the leak of critical NATO information to the Chinese, albeit inadvertently. So this is dangerous.”
“NATO won’t let that happen,” another Western official told the Hürriyet Daily News on Monday. “If the Chinese or the Russians win the Turkish contest, their systems will have to work separately. They won’t be linked to NATO information systems.”
This was the first time NATO has strongly urged Turkey against choosing the non-Western systems.
“One explanation is that Turkey itself doesn’t plan to [ultimately] select the Chinese or Russian alternatives, but still is retaining them among their options to put pressure on the Americans and the Europeans to [lower] their prices,” the Western expert said.
Turkey’s long-range air and missile defense systems program (T-Loramids) has been designed to counter both enemy aircraft and missiles.
NATO missile shield
Turkey’s national program is totally separate and independent from NATO’s own plans to design, develop and build its own collective missile shield.
The Western alliance decided during a leaders’ summit meeting in Lisbon in November last year to create the collective missile shield against potential incoming ballistic missiles from rogue countries. Ankara agreed to the decision only after the alliance accepted a Turkish request that Iran or other countries would not be specifically mentioned as potential sources of threats.
NATO now is seeking to deploy a special X-band radar in Turkish territory for the early detection of missiles launched from the region.
Senior U.S. and Turkish officials discussed the matter in mid-July in Istanbul on the sidelines of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and both sides reported progress toward an eventual deployment of the X-band radar on Turkish soil.
Ideally, in the event of a launch of a ballistic missile from a rogue state, it would be detected by the X-band radar, and U.S.-made SM-3 interceptors – based on U.S. Aegis destroyers to be deployed in the eastern Mediterranean and later possibly in Romania – would then be fired to hit the incoming missile mid-flight.
via NATO warns Turkey against buying Chinese, Russian air defense systems – Hurriyet Daily News.
The Defense Industry Executive Committee, Turkey’s top decision-making body on procurement, is expected to select a winner next week for a $4 billion contract to produce about a hundred military-grade helicopters. The main contenders are Italy’s AgustaWestland and the U.S.’ Sikorsky Aircraft
Sikorsky says it has a fourfold benefit package worth billions of dollars to offer to Turkey. Bloomberg photo
Turkey next week is due to select a winner in a competition between an Italian firm and a U.S. company for a major program to jointly produce its military’s next utility helicopter type. The contenders vying for the $4 billion contract are the mainly Italian AgustaWestland and the U.S. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
The Defense Industry Executive Committee, Turkey’s top decision-making body on defense procurement – whose members include Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül, Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner and procurement chief Murad Bayar – will gather Dec. 15, one senior procurement official told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Wednesday.
“The committee is expected to choose a winner for our utility helicopter program at next week’s meeting,” the official said.
AgustaWestland is proposing its TUHP 149, a Turkish version of its A149, a newly developed utility helicopter. The A149’s full prototype will have its first flight in January.
Sikorsky Aircraft is offering the T-70, the Turkish version of the S-70 Black Hawk International, which can be found in the inventories of dozens of countries around the world, including Turkey.
The competition is for a first batch of 109 utility helicopters, mostly for the military and security forces. But the number is expected to rise to about 300 in later years.
A top Sikorsky official announced in early October that his company had a fourfold benefit package worth billions of dollars to offer to Turkey. “If Turkey selects us for the 109 helicopter program, we will buy another 109 to be manufactured in Turkey, and export them to third countries,” Steve Estill, vice president for strategic partnerships at the Sikorsky president’s office, said at the time.
Sikorsky also is proposing to buy $1.3 billion worth of Turkish-made helicopter components, to set up a regional Black Hawk support base in Turkey and to invest in a future Turkish project to build a light utility helicopter, Estill said.
Tough competition
AgustaWestland shortly later challenged Sikorsky’s proposal. “Our competition is offering the manufacture under license of an already existing product,” Guiseppe Orsi, chief executive officer of AgustaWestland said in late October. “We are offering much, much more. We are offering Turkey to become a joint developer of a brand-new product. Turkey may become a real helicopter player in the world if it chooses us.”
Orsi said nearly 8,000 utility helicopters are expected to be replaced in the world in the upcoming decades, suggesting that his company’s Turkish program could grab international orders for at least 800 of those.
Assuming that each helicopter’s acquisition price and its lifetime maintenance cost are both are around $25 million, and the TUHP program gets orders for 800 platforms over the next 25-30 years, “the program would collect a total of $40 billion, half of which would go to Turkey,” he said.
Turkey’s Army, Navy, Air Force, Special Operations Command and Coast Guard Command are among the buyers of the first batch of military utility helicopters.
The Turkish Aerospace Industries, or TAI, Turkey’s main aerospace manufacturer, officially will be the program’s prime contractor. Several other Turkish firms also will take part in the production.
Presently, the Turkish military is operating several different types of utility helicopters. The military has more than 100 S-70s, more than 100 older U.S.-made UH-1 Hueys, around 20 French-designed AS-532 Cougars and about 15 Russian Mi-17s.
AgustaWestland secured two earlier contracts, worth billions of dollars each, to lead the joint production of 60 T-129 attack helicopters for the Turkish Army.
