Turkish defense fair sees increased interest from African continent
Posted by meb at April 26th, 2009
Turkey’s four-day 9th International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF’09), due to start tomorrow in İstanbul, will host high-ranking defense officials from about 14 African countries for the first time while the level of participation from Europe at senior levels will be quite low.
However, exhibition booths where advanced arms will be exhibited still belong mostly to European and US arms manufacturers. Defense ministers from 14 African countries, including Ethiopia, Gambia, Tanzania and Uganda, will be present at the fair, while no senior US officials are expected to participate. However, US arms producers, including Lockheed Martin and Boeing, will exhibit their products at the fair.
Russia, which boycotted the previous IDEF fair held in Ankara in 2007, will participate this year at a senior level, with its two deputy defense ministers traveling to Turkey for the fair, according to the list of participants posted on the fair Web site.
Israel, which Turkey has partnered with in major arms production deals, will participate in the fair at the undersecretarial level. Iraqi and Syrian defense ministers will also represent their countries at the Turkish defense fair for the first time.
Mainly because no adequate fairground was available in Ankara at the time of the IDEF fair — organized jointly by the Foundation to Strengthen the Turkish Armed Forces (TSKGV) and fair organizer TÜYAP — this year’s fair is being held in İstanbul in the district of Büyükçekmece.
Russia seeks arms deal with Turkey
Anatoly Aksenov, an advisor to Russia’s state-owned Rosoboronexport arms company, holding a press conference in Moscow on April 21, stated that Turkey had shown interest in buying Russian missile-defense systems and attack helicopters. Russia and Turkey may sign a military technical cooperation agreement after the fair, he said.
Russia will exhibit about 120 types of arms and defense vehicles at the IDEF’09 fair, Aksenov said, according to the Cihan news agency.
The volume of trade conducted annually between Russia and Turkey has grown to over $40 billion but the share of this amount going to military technical cooperation between the two countries is very small, he said, adding that the reason why their level of military cooperation is so low is because Turkey is a member of NATO and is mainly dependent on the US for arms systems.
“We as Russia have, however, been building some arms systems in accordance with NATO standards,” Aksenov added.
Russia’s Rosoboronexport will deliver about 800 Kornet-E medium-range anti-tank missile systems to the Turkish army as a stopgap measure while local Roketsan continues to develop an indigenous medium-range anti-tank missile system. The Kornet-Es, with a range of up to 4,000 meters, will be delivered in two years’ time as part of a deal worth about $100 million.
Turkey has also conducted talks with Rosoboronexport for the purchase of at least 12 Mi-28 attack helicopters while continuing to seek US Cobra attack helicopters after Washington turned down a Turkish request for a number of Cobras early last year because no aircraft were available.
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin is expected to sign agreements with Turkish companies ALP Aviation, ASELSAN and Kale Aviation on April 28. Under the agreement the Turkish companies would produce some parts for aircraft being produced as part of the US Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. Turkey will also buy 100 of these fighters in a deal worth $10 billion.
The Eurofighter consortium, which built Typhoon fighters, will present a Typhoon simulator at the fair. Six Eurofighter Typhoons are expected to join exercises codenamed Anatolian Eagle due to be held at a military range in Konya in June.
Turkey earlier decided to buy US JSFs instead of Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. However, consortium officials are confident that Turkey may buy from these aircraft in the future if not now.
This year’s IDEF fair will also witness an increased number of Turkish defense companies presenting arms systems developed in Turkey with the support of foreign technology.
Since 2004 Turkey has put an emphasis on the domestic production of arms systems, having relied on foreign companies for about 85 percent of its weaponry.
Undersecretary for the Defense Industry Murad Bayar said the share of domestically produced arms systems employed in Turkey has reached 42 percent and Turkey has set a goal of reaching a target of 50 percent by 2010.
There has been a 12 percent increase (from 298 to 333) in the number of foreign firms participating in this year’s fair compared to 2007, while there is a 21 percent increase (from 133 to 161 firms) in the number of Turkish firms participating in this year’s IDEF.
Defense sector and economic crisis
Bayar believes the defense sector will not be affected by the current economic downturn, which has caused the unemployment rate among Turks to rise to over 15 percent.
Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman, Bayar said Turkey’s defense industry was not currently being affected by the economic crisis and that military projects were being implemented as planned.
“On the contrary, all arms acquisition projects create employment and support the economy because the majority of these projects support the local production of systems inside the country. Thus, the money we are spending on defense supports Turkey, easing the effects of the economic crisis,” he said.
Turkey’s defense expenditure constitutes around 1.9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), Bayar noted.
Details about the Defense Industry Support Fund (SSDF), an extra-budgetary fund for defense spending, have been disclosed for the first time in a report posted on the Web site of the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM). Covering 2007 and earlier, the report puts 2007 SSDF revenues at $1.256 billion and expenditure at $1.194 billion. Many procurement projects are funded through the SSDF.
The Defense Ministry budget is TL 14.53 billion for the fiscal year 2009, a 9.1 percent increase from its 2008 budget of TL 13.27 billion. However, this budget does not include extra-budgetary allocations, only some of which are disclosed.
Portions of the budgets of the Gendarmerie General Command (JGK) and the Coast Guard Command (SGK) are also spent on defense, although they are not included in the Defense Ministry budget. Turkey is estimated to be spending about $5 billion on arms procurement annually.
A report released by the EU last November stated that no progress had been made in ensuring full civilian supervision over Turkey’s defense expenditures.
The Turkish procurement policy has been eased to allow US companies to compete in arms projects. Turkey has, for example, lifted a condition requiring US companies competing in Turkish tenders to already have export licenses.
“We definitely want US companies to compete in our tenders,” Bayar said.
source: Sundays Zaman
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