Breaking news
Turkey has extended deadline for French-Italian and U.S. Companies in tender for missile system 0107.
| 2014
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Defence & Security News - Turkey |
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| Tuesday, July 1, 2014 08:59 AM | |||
| Turkey has extended deadline for French-Italian and U.S. Companies in tender for missile system. | |||
Turkey has extended by two months the deadline for a French-Italian partnership
and U.S. companies' bids in a tender for a long-range missile defense
system. Last month, Turkish officials said the Chinese firm that won a
provisional $3.4 billion bid had not yet met all the conditions and that
Ankara might consider alternatives. |
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Turkish
government officials announced they preferred the Chinese offer due to
its competitiveness and potential for coproduction in Turkey.
In September 2013, he Turkish Ministry of Defense announced its intention to purchase the Chinese FD-2000, export variant of the HQ-9 medium-range missile system of China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CPMIEC). The United States and other NATO countries expressed deep concern about the deal, raising questions about the security implications of CPMIEC system’s integration into NATO’s command and control network and the implications of Chinese technical knowledge about how U.S. and NATO air and missile defenses operate. Along with China, the U.S., Russia and the French-Italian partnership competed in the tender. Turkish authorities announced Russia fell out of the bid evaluation. The Chinese company has been on the U.S. State Department's sanctions list since February 2013 due to proliferation concerns. NATO countries also raised objections to Turkey's move, claiming missile systems within the transatlantic military alliance must be compatible. NATO insists the technology will not be compatible with the evolving ballistic-missile shield being built in Europe. Although SSM (Turkish Defense Industry) officials announced that they preferred the Chinese offer due to its competitiveness, Ankara's decision raised concerns in the U.S. and other NATO countries. Since the announcement, the bidding deadline has been extended three times, and other bidding companies, Eurosam and Raytheon Co and Lockheed Martin, were given time to reconsider their bids until the end of June. Eurosam and Raytheon Co and Lockheed Martin can make their bids until Aug.30. |
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