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National prime contractors have teamed up with the foreign companies offering main battle tank designs to meet the requirement of the Turkish Land Forces Command (TLFC). The United States' General Dynamics Land Systems, offering the M-1A2T will be fitted with a diesel engine, has teamed up with BMC and Nurol Makina. Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, bidding the Leopard IIA6, has established a consortium with Otokar. Offering the Leclerc, France's Giat Industries has teamed with Roketsan. Ukraine's Ukrspetsexport has teamed with Asmas to offer the T-84. FNSS Defense Systems, a joint venture between Turkey's Nurol (the only Turkish producer of tracked armored fighting vehicles) and United Defense of the United States has not come to any firm partnership arrangement. However, SSM sources said that FNSS is still considered a potential prime contractor. The tanks are scheduled to go through demonstration tests scheduled to start this month and continue until June. Although still refusing to issue an export license to the German company for the co-production of tanks in Turkey, Berlin will allow the Leopard 2 to go through trial tests in Turkey. Turkey's Defense Industries' Undersecretariat (SSM), one of the country's two procurement agencies, decided to re-extend the deadline to respond to requests for proposals from Jan. 17 to the end of January, following requests from potential prime Turkish contractors and their foreign partners. The SSM had earlier extended the deadline from November 30, 1999 to January 17, 2000 following requests from the bidding companies. However, Turkish defense industry sources pointed out that there would be no delay in the date of the final selection of one of the contesters which is set at July 14, 2000. Under the first phase of the main battle tank project the first 250 tanks are scheduled to be completed by the year 2008. The general staff's decision to go ahead with main battle tank production in phases, rather than contracting all 1,000 was also said to have paved the way for the Land Forces Command to move earlier on the modernization of its existing tanks.
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There
has been important speculation in military sources that the Turkish
General Staff may downsize the number of its multi-billion dollar co
production of the 1,000 main battle tank (MBT) under the Turkish
Tank-2000 project. Instead, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) may
divert the funds to the antiballistic missile programs. Turkey seeks
to join the US-Israeli Arrow 2 anti-tactical ballistic missile
program, as well as direct procurement of some Israel and US defense
systems, and it is believed that this will cost Ankara about $7 to 8
billion, an amount close to the co-production of 1,000 main battle
tanks. The Turkish Armed Forces review its tank concept with a
rationale of whether acquiring a high number of tanks would fit the
new warfare concept. It is a fact that Turkey needs a certain number
of main battle tanks fitted with advanced electronic equipment to be
deployed on its south and southeastern borders. Therefore, Requests
for Proposals (RfP) submitted to the competing companies involved
the co-production of only first batch of 250 third generation main
battle tanks rather than for all 1,000 tanks was the result of the
reevaluation of the tank concept.