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A press conference was held yesterday morning in Ankara at the Ministry of Defence building with the participation of senior generals from the Ministry of Defense as well as from the Land Forces Command (KKK) and the Turkish General Staff. Professor Dursun Ali Ercan, a former retired officer who two months ago was appointed the new undersecretary of the Defense Industries claimed that there have been inaccurate news stories and speculations on both attack the helicopter project and on Turkey's arms spending. He denied that Turkey has been involved in efforts to arm itself. "It is true that Turkey is faced with the problem of strengthening its economy. But the regional atmosphere obliges Turkey to ensure its security. We have been observing to what extent countries in the region are taking seriously Ataturk's famous call for "Peace at home, peace in the world," Ercan said. Recalling that Turkey was not an island in the Pacific Ocean, Ercan said that the existence of states in the region which give support to international terrorism forces the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to be on the alert all the time. Turkey has not been involved in arming itself but has been seeking to bridge the gap with its neighbors, said Ercan. According to the statistics given by Ercan Greece spends $43 to arm an area of 1 square kilometer, whereas Turkey spends only $10. Among Turkey's neighbors only Georgia and Bulgaria allocate less than Turkey to defense spending within gross national product (GNP), the SSM undersecretary recalled. He also added that the share of Turkey's military spending within GNP is 4 percent whereas Greece's ratio is about 4.7 percent compared to its small population and size. In a surprise statement the SSM undersecretary described that the $150 billion allocated for the modernization and defense procurement of the TSK over the next 30 years was not realistic when it was realized that the major part of this does not go on arms supplies. Taking written questions after his presentation the SSM undersecretary fell short of clarifying this statement which contradicted with the General Staff announcement made in 1997. Then the General Staff announced that $150 billion was required for the TSK in the coming 30 years. Ercan went on to say that the economic successes of the former Soviet Union was purely based on its military power. He said: "In Turkey we do not follow such a defense concept. The 21st century is one during which the lands and oceans which were shared out among the nations in the 19th century should be preserved. This requires a much deeper chess game. And we have to win this chess game," he said. Following Ercan's statement a presentation on Turkey's security environment, details on the TSK's operational requirements as well as methods pursued on the attack helicopter project were explained by retired general Celal Gurkan, who is responsible for the project at SSM. European countries such as Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Holland and Spain have been increasing the number of attack helicopters in their inventories, despite the fact that they have been downsizing their armed forces, recalled Gurkan. Greece has increased its attack helicopter inventory, doubling its ceiling set under the Conventional Forces Treaty in Europe (CFE) and has been continuing its purchases, Gurkan said. Despite its size, big population, critical geography and international responsibilities, Turkey's spending on arms constituted 8.8 percent of its total budget, whereas other countries in the region spent 10 to 25 percent on defense, he stressed. He also recalled that Turkey's defense spending had decreased in the past 15 years. Giving a detailed account of the process that the TSK has been pursuing on attack helicopter project since it was launched in 1996 Gurkan announced that the final selection of a winner in the attack helicopter project will be made at the end of June when the SSM executive board meets. From March 6, after which three companies were shortlisted while the other two were eliminated, until June the responses to be given by the shortlisted companies on further technical specifications will be evaluated. Once a bidder is selected in late June contract negotiations with the winner will last about three months. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year and the first delivery of attack helicopters will take place in mid-2003. An earlier date for first delivery was scheduled for November 2002. The whole project, involving the co-production of 145 helicopters is scheduled to be completed in the year 2011. Over questions on the elimination of U.S. company Boeing competing with Apache, and Eurocopter (A French-German consortium) with Tiger, Gurkan said that SSM had made a detailed analysis of technical performance and cost effectiveness, among other things. It was seen that those companies eliminated had failed to meet those criteria, he added. U.S. Bell Helicopter-Textron (AH-IZ King Cobra), Italy's Agusta (A129-I), as well as Russia's Kamov, competing jointly with Israel's IAI (KA-50/52- Erdogan) are short-listed. Under the first phase 50 helicopters including two prototypes will be co-produced at an estimated $2,5 billion. The remaining helicopters will be co-produced under two batches of 50 and 45 each. According to military sources Turkey has also abandoned its earlier plan of leasing 10 helicopters from the successful company for urgent requirements. SSM has also decided to ask the competing companies to come up with the costs for the remaining 90 helicopters in order to decrease the cost of the first 50 attack helicopters. The contract with the winning company will be made for 50 helicopters. But in order to prevent an increase in the cost of the remaining 90 helicopters in the future SSM asked the three short-listed companies to come up with a cost for the rest of the attack helicopters. Turkey seeks among other things to obtain a national software source code, third country sale as well as to gain system integration with the co-production of the attack helicopters. Over U.S. linkage between Turkey's human rights situation and the export license guarantee, Gurkan recalled that all the short-listed companies had provided Turkey with goodwill letters and that in the future there would not be any problem on export licenses. (Turkish Daily News, Lale Sariibrahimoglu)
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The
Turkish military has finally broken its months-long silence on
critical press reports concerning the multi-billion-dollar attack
helicopter project as well as the rising voices in Turkey
questioning the rationale behind the country's increased spending on
arms.