Turkish bazar opens up yet again

TURKEY PLANS TO REOPEN COPTER TENDER

ANKARA [MENL] — Turkey plans to reissue a tender for attack helicopters by the end of 2004.

But officials said the tender would not resemble the canceled $2.5 billion project to coproduce 50 attack helicopters. They said the Defense Ministry was considering a smaller purchase that would not involve coproduction.

“The project is continuing,” Defense Ministry Undersecretary Murat Bayar said. “We will broaden the competition.”

In May, the Defense Ministry canceled a tender for the coproduction of attack helicopters. The frontrunner in the competition had been the U.S. firm Bell Helicopter Textron, which faced the Israeli-Russian consortium of Kamov and Israel Aircraft Industries. 😡