Military blocks gov't decision on attack helicopter competition

ÜMİT ENGİNSOY

ANKARA/WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News

A move by Turkey's top defense procurement committee's civilian flank to choose one of the two official bidders for the Army's multibillion dollar program to buy at least 30 attack helicopters had to be cancelled after strong objections from the panel's military wing, officials and analysts said.

"There was a decision on the attack helicopter program. This decision ... had to be changed because of some hesitations," National Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül told reporters after a key Defense Industry Executive Committee meeting that ended Tuesday night, according to the Anatolia news agency. He admitted the hesitations came from the military.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Chief of the General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, Gönül and Murad Bayar, head of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), attended the panel's gathering.

"It's apparent that the civilian government wanted to endorse either (the Italian-British) AgustaWestland's option or (the South African) Denel's alternative, but the military objected to both solutions," one defense analyst said. "As a result, no final decision emerged from the committee meeting, and I believe that the chances of both options have greatly diminished after the military's opposition."

The attack helicopter issue was dropped out of the meeting's agenda after Büyükanıt voiced the military's opposition to both AgustaWestland's A-129 Mangusta International and Denel Aviation's Rooivalk CSH-2 platforms, a defense source close to the gathering confirmed.

Defense analysts and industry sources said that the U.S. Boeing Co. -- maker of the AH-64D Apache Longbow -- which is outside the official competition but has an alternative offer to sell its gunship through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deal, may benefit from the failure of the Italian-British and South African solutions. The AH-64D is the U.S. Army's attack helicopter.

Gönül said the Army would continue to test and examine the cases of AgustaWestland's and Denel's platforms, but did not comment on when or what kind of a decision might appear.

Turkey's long-delayed attack helicopter program originally was launched in the mid-1990s. Ankara in 2000 selected the U.S. Bell Helicopter Textron's AH-1Z, the U.S. Marine Command's attack helicopter, but cancelled the deal in 2005 after five years of contract talks failed due to irreconcilable differences on price and technology transfer matters.

SSM then launched a fresh competition for joint production of between 30 and 90 helicopter gunships, and this year short listed the Italian-British and South African options.

U.S. companies, including Boeing and Bell, declined to bid for this latest contest, saying Turkish specifications for joint manufacture were in conflict with U.S. export rules and regulations. But Boeing still aggressively continued to pursue a Turkish contract through a government-to-government FMS sale although it stayed out of the competition.

Meanwhile, in a key decision the panel formally announced that Turkey would take part in the production phase of the U.S.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in a move designed to buy that platform as the Air Force's new-generation fighter aircraft.

Gönül confirmed earlier expectations that Turkey was planning to buy 100 F-35s worth more than $10 billion in the NATO ally's largest defense program in history.

In a next step, Turkey is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding before the year end, officially making the country one of the nine participants in the JSF program's production phase.

That phase's members also include the United States, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Denmark and Norway.

The United States is ordering 2,443 F-35s and Britain another 138. At this point the nine partners plan to purchase a total of nearly 3,200 planes. Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense company is the program's prime contractor.

The new-generation fighters are planned to begin to arrive in Turkey around 2014 and should replace the Air Force's present fleet of older F-16s and the Vietnam War-era F-4Es.

Until recently the F-35 JSF had been in competition with Europe's Eurofighter Typhoon for the Turkish market, but the military ultimately opted for the U.S.-led option.

Gönül said that Turkey so far had secured a local work share of around $4.2 billion in the F-35 JSF program, and would seek to raise this figure.

In another related and major move, the Defense Industry Executive Committee authorized SSM to finalize talks with the United States for a planned purchase of 30 new F-16 Block 50 fighter aircraft worth around $1.65 billion.

Turkey plans to buy the new F-16s as a stopgap solution until the F-35s arrive.

Lockheed Martin produces the F-16s, and Turkey's Tusaş Aerospace Industries Inc. (TAI), is expected to take part in the new batch's manufacture.

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