Israel and Turkey are in advanced negotiations for the sale of Arrow missiles to the Turkish military. The Arrows is designed to intercept ballistic missiles.
A senior Ministry of Defense source told “Globes” that Israel would ask the US to approve the sale of the system to Turkey, since the US financed most of the project. Only the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has received the missiles to date. Israel and the US signed a deal to divide the technologies in the event the system is exported to third countries.
At the same time, it was learned today that two large Turkish-Israeli defense projects recently put in doubt have been placed back on the agenda. The projects involve the supply of an Israeli spy satellite to Turkey and advanced combat helicopters developed in cooperation between Israel and Russia.
The spy satellite was scheduled to be supplied by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) through its MABAT Weapons Systems & Space Technology plant. The satellite is based on the Israeli Ofek 3 military satellite. The IAI $270 million bid was chosen, but French company Alcatel appealed the Turkish government’s decision.
Alcatel claimed that Israel granted a last-minute discount and that the prices of the Israeli and French bids had not been compared. Alcatel demanded its bid be reconsidered after the price had been lowered to $256 million, and was declared the winner.
Turkey cancelled the French win, however, following comments by official French sources concerning Turkey’s responsibility for the Armenian massacre. According to a senior Israel Ministry of Defense source, Turkey is likely to reexamine IAI’s bid. The US does not oppose the deal, due to its close relations with Turkey.
IAI’s Lahav plant and Russian helicopter manufacturer Kamov offered to upgrade Kamov-50 helicopters to a version called Kamov-52. This bid lost to US helicopter manufacturer Bell, but Turkey cited IAI as next in line to supply the helicopter.
Israeli diplomatic sources in Ankara said that the US deal may not be carried out, because the US government is making it difficult for Israel to obtain export approvals for the advanced technologies.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on July 9, 2001