Defence Industry Executive Committee Meeting: 3 Significant Decrees
Defence Industry Executive Committee Meeting: 3 Significant Decrees
Defence Industry Executive Committee, has been gathered on March 30, 2007 in order to discuss the issues that have been in its agenda and to decree about them.
Undersecretariat for Defence Industries had been authorized in order to sign contracts with contractor companies of the below mentioned projects of which evaluation activities had been completed.
In that context it has been decreed to start to contract negations with the following companies: in Turkish Land Forces Attack and Tactical Reconnaissance Helicopter (ATAK) Program, after evaluation of the proposals of Denel and Augusta/Westland companies which had been short listed previously, with Augusta/Westland under TAI’s prime contract responsibility; in the modern tank manufacturing project, with national capabilities, that has been launched to meet main battle requirement of Turkish Land Forces with Otokar A.S.; in New Type Patrol Boat Project regarding 16 boats procurement for Turkish Naval Forces need with Dearsan A.S.; in the project launched for modernization of SAR-35 type boats of Coast Guard with Istanbul Denizcilik Ltd. Sti.
It had been decreed to launch three projects under the SSM’s responsibility which requirement determination activities had been completed in the context of Turkish Armed Forces ten years acquisition/procurement program,. These projects are: Wheeled Tactical Vehicles Project, which is Turkish Land Forces Command’s requirement, message document distribution system, which is General Staff’s requirement and Submarine Diving Simulator project, which is Turkish Naval Forces Command’s requirement.
Finally, by evaluating that the Escort Jammer Project, Short Range Missile System and Target Pod Procurement and Integration projects are no longer needed, Defence Industry Executive Committee has been decided to cancel the mentioned projects.
In the press conference held after the meeting, Mr. Vecdi Gönül, Minister of National Defence, made the following evaluations:
“In this meeting 3 significant combat vehicles had been decreed. In the ATAK Project TAI will act as prime contractor, Agusta Westland will act as subcontractor. This helicopter, named as T129, will be manufactured in Turkey. Currently, quantity has been determined as 50. The project cost is about 2.7 billion dollars. In the decree stage of the ATAK project, a lot of criterions have been evaluated. Because of the huge price difference between the proposals, it has been decided to start the contract negotiations with the Italian company, Agusta Westland.”
Mr. Gönül stated that the exact number in the National Tank Project hasn’t become definite yet and the project is still in the design development stage for which 500 million dollars have been estimated. Mr. Gönül stated that at first the prototype will be manufactured and a quantity could not be declared before the completion of the prototype.
