• Turkish defense industry divided on procurement: Turkey abandons plan to tender for M-60 tank modernization (March 10)

Turkey's defense industry appears to be in mess nowadays as a divergence of opinion has apparently emerged between those promoting competition by opening tenders on defense procurement programs and those seeking a sole source in various projects, citing reasons such as the preventation of delays for some immediate requirements. 

The latest example of two different sets of opinion emerging within the Turkish defense industry and the military was witnessed in Turkey's modernization of M-60 Patton tanks and in its airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft programs. While contracting the M-60 to Israel as a sole source has been sought, competition was witnessed in the AEW&C project when the two competing US companies reduced their prices to increase their chances of winning. The General Staff responded positively to a request made by the Land Forces Command (KKK) that the modernization of 170 M-60A1 tanks be given to Israel's Israeli Military Industries (IMI) as a sole source rather than opening a tender. The request stemmed from the fact that there have been delays in the co-production of a new generation of main battle tanks (Turkish Tank-2000 MBTs) valued at about $7 billion, necessitating going ahead with the modernization of the M-60 tanks as quickly as possible. Another reason for the KKK's urgent pursued the erroneous strategy of running the modernization of M-60s and the new generation Tank-2000 MBTs programs in parallel. But when the new generation MBT co-production experienced delays, the KKK decided to abandon its earlier plan of running the two projects in parallel and accelerated efforts to proceed with the M-60 modernization.

Turkey's decision to select Israel as a sole source will mark another attempt by the Turkish military to challenge its 1968 defense industry strategy paper under which competition is encouraged to enable the transfer of high technology and to reduce the cost.

The KKK plans to complete the upgrading of M-60 tanks in two years time. Initially 170 M-60A1 tanks are planned to be upgraded at a cost of approximately $300 million. The upgrade program could exceed $1 billion if the Land Force Command decides to modernize the entire fleet. But in order to avoid an overlap between the M-60 tank modernization and the start of the third generation Tank-2000 main battle tanks scheduled for 2004, Turkey is expected to keep the number of tanks to be modernized at 170 instead of around 1000, local defense industry sources said.

Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu confirmed earlier that a contract for the MBTs is planned to be signed in mid-July. If things go as planned, the first MBTs will be produced in 2004, and the final completion of the first batch of 250 MBTs is scheduled to be completed in 2008.

Local firm Aselsan, meanwhile, will soon start to produce a prototype for the modernization of the fire control systems of Leopard 1 tanks. Modernization of each Leopard 1 tank is to cost about $1 million, said a local industry source. The Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM) has allocated around $2.5 billion for the initial batch of 250 Tank-2000 MBTs.

But it does not have any source for the modernization of the tanks. However, it has been learned that the General Staff has asked the SSM to delay some of the less urgent projects and divert the funds to the modernization of M-60 and Leopard 1 fleets. Similarly the SSM is prepared to ask the military to open a tender for the modernization of 160 Leopard 1 tanks instead of contracting it to Aselsan for the production of a prototype. (Turkish Daily News, Lale Sariibrahimoglu)