orko_8Turkey signs contract to buy 30 F-16 aircraft
Fri May 11, 2007 2:01PM BST
NKARA, May 11 (Reuters) – Turkey signed a $1.78 billion deal on Friday to buy 30 F-16 fighter jets from U.S.-based Lockheed Marin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research.
Under the deal, part of a wider programme to modernise NATO member Turkey’s military, the aircraft will be produced, assembled and tested by Turkish aerospace firm Tusas in Ankara, Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters.
((Reporting by Zerin Elci, writing by Gareth Jones; Reuters Messaging: [email]gareth.jones.reuters.com@reuters.net[/email]; Ankara newsroom +90 312 292 7012)) Keywords: TURKEY LOCKHEED/F 16
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/tnBasicIndustries-SP/idUKANK00024720070511?feedType=RSS
orko_8😉
Australia Closer to Picking F-100 for AWD
(Source: Forecast International; issued April 26, 2007)
CANBERRA — As long predicted by Forecast International, the Spanish F100 air warfare destroyer will be selected as the winning design for Australia’s AUD7 billion Air Warfare Destroyer. The Defence Capability and Investment Committee – the Defence Department’s top policy advisory committee – met last week and endorsed the F100 design offered by Spanish government shipbuilder Navantia. In doing so they emphatically rejected the case for a larger alternative based on the U.S. Arleigh Burke class destroyer.
The key considerations behind the decision were that the F100 build was more than AUD1billion less expensive than the U.S. option and more than two years ahead on the delivery schedule for three warships. The tender evaluation of the two bids submitted by Navantia and Gibbs and Cox had found conclusively in favor of the Spanish on all the key criteria.
Although supporters of the Gibbs and Cox-designed DDG-51 derivative promoted the greater weapons carrying capacity of their design, including 64 rather than 48 vertical launch tubes and two rather than one helicopters, the advantages of the F100 were so strong that a debate between supporters of the two designs was a complete wipeout according to one senior Australian defense source.
The financial benefits resulting from the selection of the F100 are so great that they will go a long way towards funding (some estimates are that they will almost completely accommodate) a fourth Air Warfare Destroyer. The Australian Cabinet’s National Security Committee will consider an option to buy a fourth F100 destroyer when it makes a final decision on a go-ahead for the project in June.
Common wisdom has often suggested that the Navantia bid was simply a stalking horse for Gibbs and Cox, which the Government selected in 2005 as its preferred designer. According to this interpretation, Navantia has come from behind six months ago to win the backing of Defence chiefs. Forecast International has never agreed with this perception since the information we were receiving from Australia from the start of the project was consistently that the F100 was the preferred candidate and that the Gibbs and Cox design was a back-up in case the F100 class hit serious problems on its trials. This did not happen, the Alvaro de Bazan proved to be a great success and this eliminated the DDG-51 derivatives last hope of winning this contract.
It may well be that the appointment of Gibbs and Cox as preferred designer in 2005 was not a sign of preference for their design but the group’s last chance to make its case.
A key handicap for Gibbs and Cox was that its proposed warship existed only in its preliminary design phase, increasing the technical risk for a local builder. Australia’s experiences with new and untried designs has been disappointing with the Collins Class submarines a stark example of everything that can go wrong. The F100 is not the final winner in this competition yet, but the chances of the National Security Committee’s decision being overturned are not high.
The air warfare destroyers are due to enter service from 2013, and will be the biggest and most advanced warships in the RAN.
The AUD7 billion program will be Australia’s second-biggest defense project in the coming decade, after the AUD14billion joint strike fighter for the air force.
orko_8Expect Schelde, Fincantieri, Armaris & Navantia to be knocking on the door with proposals. 😀
Any idea how big a vessel is wanted?
~17,000t AFAIK
orko_8Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries has issued an RfI for an LPD and associated craft and vehicles.
Request For Information (RFI) For Landing Platform Dock (LPD) Project
(Source: Turkish Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM); issued April 6, 2007)
This is to inform you that 1 (one) Landing Platform Dock (LPD) together with:
– 4 (four) Landing Craft Mechanics (LCM),
– 27 (twenty seven) Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV),
– 2 (two) Landing Craft Personnel Vehicles (LCVP),
– 1 (one) Commander Boat and
– 1 (one) RHIB (Rubber Hull Inflated Boat),will be procured by Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) to meet the Turkish Naval Forces Command’s requirements.
In this frame, Request for Information is issued to gather administrative, financial and technical information from related companies who may be willing to participate for the project activities.
The companies who are willing to reply to the RFI may request the RFI document by sending an e-mail including their company name and detailed contact address to [email]lpd@ssm.gov.tr[/email]. Then, the RFI document will be sent to the related companies by e-mail.
Deadline for requesting the RFI document from SSM is 04 May 2007. Companies should send their responses to the addresses referenced in the RFI.
We encourage you to respond and thank you in advance for your interest.
orko_8Well I guess it depends on how far back you really want to go doesn’t it? Since this is a modern military section I’ll stick my answers to the Jet age.
😀 Well an aircraft with a huge hoola hop never gets old I guess 😛
Anyway, this is something newer, F-104CCV:
orko_8Junkers Ju52 3m6e minesweeper version:
orko_8Dear tiddles,
They are horizontal rudders.
orko_8MONARC project seem to be abandoned…
From defence-aerospace:
OTO Melara Wins Major Naval Order from Germany for 127LW Guns
(Source: Città della Spezia; issued April 3, 2007)
(Issued in Italian; unofficial translation by defense-aerospace.com)
LA SPEZIA, Italy — Italian Undersecretary of Defence Lorenzo Forcieri announced today that Germany has accepted an offer for the supply of 127 LW Vulcano cannons, produced by OTO Melara, for the German Navy’s new F125 frigates.
“During my recent visit to Germany, I discussed the issue of OTO’s offer with my German counterpart, Peter Eickenboom. I stressed that Germany must adequately compensate the major investment that Italy is making in German submarines and related weapon systems. My argument was bolstered by the fact that OTO Melara is the world leader in the naval artillery sector, and that its leading-edge products attain an absolute level of excellence,” Forcieri said.
The five German frigates will thus be fitted with Italian main guns. The order is valued at 70 to 100 million euros. For the same ships, Germany has also selected the remotely-controlled 12.7 Hitrole-NT machine-gun stations, for a contract valued at 10 million euros.
“Furthermore,” said Forcieri, “OTO will also be awarded the refitting and upgrade contract for the guns in service on the older F124-class frigates of the German Navy.”
The contracts are to be signed in September, once the funding for the F125 frigates has been approved by the Bundestag.
“I am pleased that these long negotiations have been concluded to the satisfaction of our industry. This success, in addition to demonstrating the high degree of competitiveness of our country’s defence industry, will provide OTO with a significant workload over the coming years. And other contracts, that I hope will also be successfully concluded, are also being negotiated,” Forcieri concluded.
orko_8The news reports about Army officials pressing for urgent procurement of AH-64D Apache are utmost Bravo Sierra, since:
1. Army (or generally speaking Joint Chieff of Staff) always had to opportunity to block and cancel the ATAK II project because defense procurement decisions in Defense Industry Executive Committee are made unanimously. Additionally, defense requirements come from JCR R&D office, by the approval of JCS (Gen Yasar Buyukanit in this case).
2. Turkish Armed Forces has a strict standing against off-the-shelf procurement. General attitude is the maximization of local industrial content in the system, or if possible procurement of indigenous systems. We can see the reflection of this attitude in the cancellation of procurement of Litening III pods and wat for a couple of years until ASELSAN’s AselPod becomes ready.
3. Turkey’s relationship with the USA is not at its best. There are conflicts of interests between the two in Middle East, especially in Iraq issue. In these circumstances, procurement of a weapon system which is highly likely to be used in the region in a possible conflict (such as an operation in Northern Iraq against terrorist organization PKK). Even if these helicopters are to be based in Northwestern Anatolia against Greece, it will sure be more than a logistics chaos to deploy a lot of types of attack helicopters (AH-1W, AH-1P, T-129, AH-64).
As for the ATAK II project,
First of all the project covers production of 50 (plus 1 or 2 prototypes) attack helicopters in Turkey, with an option of 41 more. The project consists of four batches, which is 30+ 20 + 20 + 21. There was some confusion that contract negotiations were for 30 helicopters with an option for 20 more. That is not the case. Payments for each batch will be released during the later stages of the previous batch, i.e payments for the 50 helicopters will not be released totally at one time.
By the way ATAK I project, which was cancelled in May 2004 covered production of 50 + 50 + 45 = 145 helicopters.
Three configurations have been defined in ATAK II which are:
Original Configuration: The version satisfying all requirements in the technical requirements document
Downgraded Configuration: The version without Delta Equipment (see below) but with COTS and/or GFE systems that satisfy minimum requirements.
Contractor Configuration: The current version of the helicopter, without Delta Equipment.
ASELSAN, TAI and TUBITAK MAM (The Scientific and Technological Council of Turkey, Marmara Research Center) has formed a consortium named ASMATA for the research, development, production and integration of systems associated with the ATAK II project. These systems package is called as Delta Equipment and includes MFD-268E multi function display system, moving map, CDU-900Z control display unit, AselFLIR-300T FLIR system, mission computer, MXF-484 radio systems, IFF, data processing and recording systems, ASELSAN Helmet Mounted Cueing and Display system, LN-100G INS/GPS, ASELSAN MMW radar system, plus ROKETSAN’s medium (OMAT) and long range (UMAT) anti tank guided missiles and 2.75″ laser guided rockets (Cirit).
R&D and integration works and flight test of most of the above systems have been conducting on an Army AH-1P helicopter.
The first helicopter of the first batch will be something of a prototype and used for tests of Delta Equipment. SSM (Savunma Sanayii Mustesarligi, Undersecretariat for Defense Industries) will decide which batches will be of which configuration, i.e whether they will be of Original Configuration or Downgraded Configuration. Involvement of Delta Equipment in these batches and configurations will be decided progressively, before each batch, based on the R&D and test results.
First flight of the first serial production helicopter is expected in late 2008 – early 2009.
orko_8Not 30, 52. And they are to be produced in TAI, Ankara: http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48757
orko_8Forgive my scepticism, but hasn’t the American / Russian and South African been the winner of this competition at one point. So I will believe it when the first chopper flies in Turkish colours, and even then…….. :dev2:
You are right to some extent, since this is something like a neverending story, we cannot be 100% sure until the contract signed 😀
In the first tender (ATAK I) Bell was in the first place, Kamov-IAI second and Agusta in the third. Contract negotiations with Bell commenced but had come to a choking point because of mainly export license and technology transfer issues. After endless negotiations tender was cancelled and ATAK II started in May 2004. In December it was announced that Denel and Agusta selected for short list, Denel in the first place. According to some Turkish newspapers, Denel’s offer was very attractive but surprisingly they raised it a lot in the last minute (some say more than 3 billion $). And here we are..
orko_8It is reported that the cost is 2.7 billion $ for production of 52 helicopters, integration, training, production line transfer, license transfer and leasing of 10 Italian Army A-129CBT’s. But I think more precise information regarding the cost will be available in the forthcoming weeks.
orko_8More updates: 😀
According to a well informed fellow Turkish forumer, all copyrights including export licenses will be on Turkey. TAI (Turkish Aerospace Industries) will have the sole production line of the helicopter and all integration work of local mission computer, FLIR, MFD, local HMDS will be done at TAI facilities.
The helicopter will be equipped with wingtip mounted ATAS (Air-to-Air Stinger) launchers.
There will either be new engines or modified version of current engine (LHTC T-800?)
Roketsan’s OMAT (medium range anti tank missile) and UMAT (long range anti tank missile) will be standard ATGM systems.
Azerbaijani, Pakistani and Malaysian armies are very interested in the outcome of the project, especially the first two.
orko_8Thanks for that Orko, I appreciste that you do not know the exact nature of the design, but do you know if an auto-loader has been specified or resquested? I only ask becouse it looks like we are going to see yet another variant of the Leopard and the only thing it seems to be lacking is an auto-loader?
I heard that a lot of debate took place on the auto-loading and suspension issues. Before Best-And-Final-Offers were submitted in December 2006, auto-loading seemed to be favored by procurement agency but I don’t have the information on the latest version of the technical requirements.
orko_8There were two parties competing for the MBT project: Otokar and FNSS+BMC joint venture. Undersecretariat for Defense Industries prepared a list of selected foreign technical assistance suppliers and stated the bidders to chose one from the list. Otokar chose KMW and as far as I know FNSS+BMC chose South Korea.
The nature of the design is not clear or unclassified yet, but I think it is safe to assume that it will be a distant cousin of Leopard 2A6.
By the way, FNSS is the producer of AIFV, ACV-300S tracked vehicles.
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