Combat helicopter bid now three-horse race

Published: 3/7/2000

Bulent Ecevit, Prime Minister of Turkey, has confirmed that two of the bidders for the ongoing helicopter tender have been eliminated from the race. The French-German Eurocopter consortium and Boeing have both been excluded from the bid for 145 attack helicopters, valued at $4.5 billion, for the Turkish army, on the grounds that the information provided by the candidates was deemed to be “unsuitable”. This leaves three consortiums still in the running. These are Agusta, with its A129, Bell Helicopter Textron, with its AH-IZ King Cobra and Kamov, bidding jointly with Israel's IAI for the Ka-50-2 Alligator , recently gaining the Turkish title, Erdogan to encourage local support. According to Ecevit, the tender, which was initiated in 1997, is not yet close to a final decision, although earlier reports had suggested 16th March or even earlier. At the beginning of the month, Sergei Mikheyev, Chief Designer of Kamov, had been somewhat coy about the company's chances. This latest development should allow him greater optimism. The Erdogan has been developed in a tandem configuration, in partnership with IAI's subsidiary, Lahav, which provided the aircraft's avionics, at the request of the Turkish authorities. Despite grumbles that the elimination of Eurocopter and Boeing had been made on political grounds, official sources insisted that “solid commercial reasons” were behind the decision. It seems strange that the Americans and French would use the cry of politics as a reason for exclusion, as it has been the primary concern that Russia has expressed throughout the process, believing that it would be 'nobbled' by NATO. In the case of Eurocopter, the crash, in 1998, of a Tiger prototype in Australia, was reported as undermining the bid, together with a production timetable stretching two years beyond Turkey's deadline of 2003. Boeing's Apache, at two and half times more expensive than the other options, was ruled out on the grounds of cost, as well as estimated delivery times. Ecevit stated that funding would not pose a problem. Turkey is keen to produce the chosen helicopter at the Tucas Aerospace Industries facility, which, until recently, made F-16s and the level of offset has been one of the key factors in evaluating the bids. The contract will be awarded in three stages, with 45 helicopters being built in the first stage and 50 each in the second and third stages. The Russian military and producer Progress, which has produced the Ka-50 in limited numbers during 1999, has high hopes of boosting its output, should the Kamov bid win through, potentially giving the programme some economies of scale and cheaper helicopters for the Russian Army. In August 1999, a Turkish delegation visited the Progress plant in Arsenyev, to establish its capability to produce the first batch of aircraft, with a view to the remaining helicopters being assembled in Turkey from local and foreign parts. Associated articles: www.concise.org. 4th March 1999: Five helicopters in Turkish attack helicopter short list 4th August 1999; Turkish delegation visits plant 10th November 1999: Progress looks for Turkish delight 2nd March 2000: Ka-50 in new bid

Article ID: 1519