Turkey Holds Fighter Talks With S. Koreans, Swedes
By UMIT ENGINSOY and BURAK EGE BEKDIL
Published: 25 Aug 2011 11:00
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i= ... =EUR&s=AIR
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey has held separate talks with aeronautical officials from South Korea and Sweden for possible cooperation in the design, development and production of a new fighter aircraft in the next decade, a senior procurement official said.
"The companies are South Korea's Korea Aerospace Industries, or KAI, and Sweden's Saab," the official said.
KAI is the manufacturer of several military and civilian aircraft and satellites and is planning to produce the KF-X fighter aircraft. Saab makes the multirole fighter JAS 39 Gripen.
Turkey, whose present fighter fleet is made up of U.S.-made aircraft, also plans to buy the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a next-generation, multinational program also led by the United States.
But Turkish officials privately say they want to develop another future jet fighter with a country other than the United States to reduce Turkey's overdependence on Washington. Most of Turkey's fleet of F-16 fighters, being modernized by Lockheed Martin, and the planned future F-35s are open to U.S. technological influence. Only its older F-4 aircraft, modernized by Israel, and its oldest F-16s, being modernized by Turkey itself, are free from this influence, the officials said. But these older aircraft are expected to be decommissioned around 2020.
As part of efforts to select a new fighter, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has been tasked to determine the specifications of the new fighter by the end of 2012.
Turkey late last year held an initial round of talks with KAI on this matter, but the South Koreans offered to share only 20 percent of the project with Turkey, with another 20 percent going to Indonesia while keeping the remaining 60 percent for themselves. Turkey wants an equal share in the development and was quick to reject this offer.
"Now the South Koreans are coming much closer to an idea of an equal ownership, and this is positive," the Turkish procurement official said. "But there are still many more things to be discussed with the Koreans."
In the meantime, Turkey continues to be interested in rival programs, and the recent talks with Saab officials reflect this situation, the procurement official said. "Sweden also is a potential partner for us."
In addition to KAI and Saab, the Eurofighter consortium continues efforts to include Turkey in its Eurofighter Typhoon project.
Italian Deputy Defense Minister Goido Crosetto said in May that the pan-European Eurofighter Typhoon was the only viable alternative to U.S. planes in this category and urged Turkey to join the European-led defense program.