KurdistanObserver.com
Turkey Requests Used Helicopter Gunships From U.S.
DefenseNews
Jan 28, 2007
WASHINGTON and ANKARA — Turkey, which urgently wants attack
helicopters to help fight separatist Kurdish militants near its border with
Iraq, recently asked Washington to sell about a dozen of the U.S. military’s own
gunships, officials from both sides said.
“To meet our short-term requirement, we would like to buy a
number of attack helicopters that are presently in the U.S. military’s
inventory,” one senior Turkish military official said.
One U.S. business source familiar with Turkish defense matters
said the Turkish military particularly was interested in buying the AH-1W or
another version in the Cobra family, manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron,
Fort Worth, Texas, from the U.S. Marines. Turkey’s Army also operates the
Cobras.
A Turkish procurement official said the military wants to
acquire around a dozen Cobra gunships.
The United States had not formally responded to the request by press time, and
it was not clear if any such helicopters were available for sale. U.S. Marines
are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Turkey last spring made a similar but informal inquiry, and
at the time the U.S. government was not willing to declare that its military had
attack helicopters available for transfer to the Turks,” the U.S. business
source said. “But since then, the political climate has greatly improved between
the two nations.”
After attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rose in September and early
October, Ankara threatened to send its Army into neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan,
where the PKK has bases.
U.S. President George W. Bush, who staunchly opposed a unilateral and
large-scale Turkish incursion, pledged at an early November meeting with
visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide actionable
intelligence to help the Turks strike specific PKK targets in Iraq.
Since then, Turkish aircraft repeatedly have struck PKK
positions in Iraqi Kurdistan, including the group’s headquarters on Qandil
Mountain, more than 60 miles south of the border. The Turkish attacks came with
Washington’s apparent blessing, and Turkey’s civilian and military leaders have
praised “the United States’ help against terrorism.”
The PKK is on the defensive partly because of harsh winter conditions, but may
relaunch attacks in Turkey in a few months, as it has in recent springs. The
Turkish Army uses attack helicopters against the PKK, and currently is operating
seven AH-1W Super Cobras and some other earlier versions of the Cobra family.
The U.S. business source said Turkey also has shown some interest in the U.S.
Army’s AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. But the Turkish military
official said the Army had no infrastructure to support the Apache’s
maintenance, and that the Army prefers the Cobras.
Boeing, maker of the Apache, has said several times in past
years that it is willing to provide Turkey with new AH-64s through the U.S.
Foreign Military Sales program.
Turkey launched an ambitious but so far unsuccessful bid for
joint production of attack helicopters in the mid-1990s, and selected Bell
Helicopter Textron in a 2000 tender. But Turkey’s procurement agency canceled
that program in 2005 after five years of talks with Bell failed due to major
disputes on price and technology transfer.
The procurement office then launched a fresh tender, won last year by the
Italian-British AgustaWestland, maker of the A129 Mangusta International. Boeing
and Bell boycotted that competition, claiming Turkey’s request for proposal was
not compatible with U.S. export laws.
Turkey and AgustaWestland last August signed a contract for the $2.7 billion
program’s first 30 platforms, but the project already has run into problems, and
at best the first helicopter may be delivered in 2014. A large portion of the
price will go to two Turkish companies, the main local contractors: Tusas
Aerospace Industries and Aselsan, both based in Ankara.
The contract now faces a probe after an opposition lawmaker earlier this month
filed an investigation motion questioning several technical hurdles as well as
Turkish procurement authorities’ agreement to an unusually high advance payment
of 50 percent. The government has not yet replied to the motion.
“These are serious allegations,” one Ankara-based defense
analyst said. “They may put the A gustaWestland deal into uncertainty. And I
understand the military doesn’t want to waste more time when it’s bogged down
with fighting PKK.”
