MARCH 2000

• Turkey eyes Asia for arms production (March 22)

As a sign of diversification of its mainly European and U.S. suppliers, Turkey is now prepared to enter the Asian market for its arms production. Turkey and South Korea have prepared a draft defense industry cooperation agreement under which both countries will enter into joint production activities that will cover a wide range of areas such as the building of warships as well as howitzer and armored vehicle production projects. A Turkish military delegation was in South Korea in late February to hold talks on possible cooperation areas and to prepare the draft for the defense industry cooperation agreement. 

South Korea has established a considerable infrastructure in areas such as shipbuilding -- it builds 50 ships per year -- and howitzer and armored vehicle production, said a defense industry source. Turkey's attempt to produce 155mm howitzers did not meet required standards and weighed around a heavy 60 tons, said the same source, adding that South Korea was able to manufacture 155mm howitzers weighing 46 tons. This could be another area of cooperation, stated the same source. 

German technology has dominated Turkey's warship building industry in the past. A possible cooperation with South Korea could change this and also save some of Turkey's arms projects from being interrupted by its Western allies due to political pressure exerted upon it because of its bad human rights record. Another area of cooperation between Turkey and South Korea will be the production of submarine torpedoes, making Seoul an alternative to Germany in this field. South Korea has already been manufacturing armored fighting vehicles (AFV) similar to the ones that U.S. firm FMC and local Nurol (FNSS Defense Systems) have already co-produced in Turkey. As part of the attempt to break into the Asian market, FNSS has also come close to signing a contract with Malaysia for the production of armored fighting vehicles under the FNSS license. If the deal is finalized, this will be the first time that FNSS, which has been co-producing four different AFV models for the Turkish Army, will transfer its AFV technology to a third country. 

The FNSS project will involve the co-production of about 300 AFVs in Malaysia under the FNSS license at an estimated project cost of $350 million. The initial decision for the co-production of AFVs in Malaysia was made in 1997, but further negotiations were suspended due to the Asian economic crisis at the time. 

FNSS has also received orders from the Turkish Land Forces Command (KKK) to produce an additional 665 AFVs. The United Arab Emirates has been earmarked for the first 136 specialized versions of the armored personnel carrier (APC) ordered from FNSS Defense Systems of Turkey in March 1997. Meanwhile, the addition of Russian BTR 60/80s as well as MI-17 helicopters into Turkey's inventory has also paved the way for cooperation with former eastern bloc countries such as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania. (Turkish Daily News, Lale Sariibrahimoglu)

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