FINMECCHANICA: “WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH TURKEY”

Finmeccanica’s high level officials Mr. Giovanni Uccella Director Finmeccanica's Ankara Office,  Mr. Giovanni Bertolone, Senior  Vice President Technical Central Director and  Mr. Franco Donfrancesco, Vice President Marketing and Industrial Compensation met in Rome with Turkish media. The Finmecchanica officials answered questions on their future plans and on-going tenders in Turkey.

 

As a shareholder of the MBDA Corporation and as the 6th largest defence industry holding company in the world, Finmeccanica’s officials in providing information to Turkish journalists emphasized that they are in a strategic partnership process with Turkey and that in terms of joint investments and cooperation they considered Turkey as a key country.

 

Finmecchanica officials put forward that the Turkish F-4 air fleet is old and considering that the F-35s would not arrive before 2020, the F-16s in the Turkish Air Force must be supported with EU made  multi-purpose, twin engine, delta wing new generation Eurofighter hunter aircrafts.

 

Underlying that before Turkey supports her fleet with F-35s Turkey must obtain between 40 to 60 Eurofighters, the Italian officials stated  that they can produce the next generation of Eurofighters together with Turkey. Experts indicated that a Eurofighter fleet between 40 and 60 Eurofighter would amount to about 2-3 billion euros. Stating that the Turkish defence industry had long gone beyond  piecemeal and offset production, Finmeccanica officials said that Turkish defense industry companies had  reached  indigenous design and production capabilities and for this reason they had  proposed joint production.

 

Finmeccanica officials drew attention to the fact that production of an unimportant part or the maintenance of a producted  part cannot be considered as a strategic partnership and that they wanted to develop joint design with Turkey.

 

Reminding that the Turkish Armed Forces requested the purchase of  9 AgustaWestland T-129A helicopters as soon as possible for their attack helicopter requirements, Finmeccanica officials stated  that the delivery of the T129A helicopters that is designed for “Close Air Support Duties” application would begin 15 months prior to the signing of the contract for the T129B (ATAK) helicopters in 2008 and that this delivery would take place on time.

 

Finmeccanica officials noted that they can also cooperate on C27 military transport aircrafts and that in the meantime they may enter the  general purpose helicopter tender with the A149 helicopter model.

 

The same officials indicated  that they may enter the air defence frigate missile tender within the National Ship (MILGEM) project should this take place and that they can jointly work with Roketsan on this project. The Italian officials stated that having seen Turkey as an export market now don’t consider  it different from the Italian domestic market.