Representatives of the Turkish Ministry of Defense contacted senior Israeli Ministry of Defense and defense industry officials in recent days. The Turkish representatives wish to revive the deal for procurement of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for the Turkish Army. The deal was unexpectedly cancelled six months ago.
Sources inform “Globes” that the new version of the deal is worth $100 million, compared with $600 million for the original deal. Israeli defense sources said that budget limitations accounted for the lower value.
”Turkey’s original plan was too expensive. They revised their major defense projects six months ago, and prepared new procurement plans,” a security source stated.
The planned UAV deal is a joint venture of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT), which compete with each other in the UAV field.
Defense establishment sources said that renewed Turkish interest in Israeli defense products probably indicated some warming in the Turkish government’s attitude to Israel, after attacks on Israel and its policies in the territories by senior Turkish officials in the past six months. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the leading supporter of the deal.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on October 12, 2004