Amid speculation that the selection of bidders in the multi-billion-dollar attack helicopter co-production project has been postponed for the third time, today's meeting of the Defense Ministry executive board is expected to be the last one on the issue. 

During his visit to Kayseri, Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu said the decision on the project, which has been on the drawing board since 1997, will be given today because the executive board talks are now in their final stage. 

Cakmakoglu stressed that five major companies have participated in the multi-level bidding and evaluations and that 145 helicopters will be produced in the $3 billion project. The five companies competing for the project are: Boeing (AH-64D Apache Longbow) and Bell Helicopter-Textron (AH-1Z King Cobra) of the United States; Italy's Agusta (A129-Atak); France's Eurocopter (Tiger) and Russia's Kamov, which is competing jointly with Israel's IAI, (KA-50/52-Erdogan). 

There were recent reports that Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit would postpone the selection decision for a third time due to his reluctance to decide on the project prior to obtaining guarantees on President Suleyman Demirel's re-election. If Demirel's re-election bid fails, Ecevit believes that his government should resign, and therefore he would prefer a new government to decide on such an important project. 

Referring to the main battle tank project, Cakmakoglu said the project included modernizing all tanks in the Turkish Army within 15 years and taking delivery of 250 tanks in the first five years. The $7.1 billion project is expected to be discussed by the Defense Ministry executive board in July. 

Dubbing the major projects as necessary for the military's modernization, Cakmakoglu said the Turkish military is growing stronger by downsizing. (Turkish Daily News)