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Turkey to increase spending in defense |
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As Turkey intensifies its efforts to fight the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, the budget for the National Defense has increased from YTL 13.3 billion to YTL 14.5 billion for 2009. The 2009 budget, submitted to Parliament’s Plan and Budget Commission, was approved Monday. During talks over the budget, Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül stressed the importance of strengthening the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK’s, power to fight terrorist organizations. "Through the development of technology and its increasing accessibility, terrorist organizations have increased their opportunities and improved their abilities. In this way, they can attack any part of the world. Maintenance of TSK’s deterrence power is very important in this context," he said. |
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Europe unveils delayed A400M aircraft |
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Europe was due to unveil the A400M military aircraft on Thursday, giving the public a first glimpse of a powerful turboprop plane built to supply seven NATO countries with urgently needed strategic transport capacity. The plane has been developed by a unit of aerospace company EADS at a cost of 20 billion euros, making it Europe's biggest military co-operation project, but has been dogged by problems in producing the West's most powerful turboprop engines. The first plane assembled was due to be rolled out of a purpose-built hangar in southern Spain at a lavish ceremony attended by King Juan Carlos of Spain. But its maiden flight has been pushed back from January to September this year as a consortium led by Rolls Royce and Snecma wrestles with the engine problems. The A400M was designed as Europe's answer to the ageing Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a powerful workhorse made to ship troops and equipment into the world's most rugged hotspots. The sale of 180 A400M's to a block of seven European nations — Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg and Turkey --in 2003 was the continent's biggest ever single arms order. Exports to South Africa and Malaysia brought the total of aircraft sold to 192, but a sale to Chile was cancelled. |
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TDN with wire dispatches The contract for a tactical attack helicopter project of the Land Forces will officially come into effect tomorrow, with the event marked at the Turkish Aviation Industry, or TUŞAŞ, facilities in Ankara. The ceremony, which will celebrate the beginning of the project to build 90 attack helicopters by TUŞAŞ and Italian-British AgustaWestland, is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdoğan and Defense Minister Vecdi Gonül. The programming and the hardware will be locally produced. The helicopter to be produced is a Turkish version of AgustaWestland's A129 Mangusta International model. Two leading U.S. attack helicopter manufacturers, Boeing, maker of the U.S. Army's AH-64D Longbow; and Bell Helicopter Textron, maker of the U.S. Marine Command's AH-1Z, could not bid for the Turkish tender, because they were unable to meet the Undersecretariat of Defense Industry's, or SSM, entry conditions. The AgustaWestland-led group should now develop, build and test prototypes, and deliver the first gunship to the Turkish Army in 2012. But although the contracts have already been signed, there is an ongoing uncertainty over the platform's engine, industry sources said. Turkey originally launched its long-delayed attack helicopter program in the mid-1990s, and selected Bell Helicopter Textron's AH-1Z in 2000. But contract talks collapsed in 2005 because of unresolved disputes on price and technology transfer matters. |
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