Turkish Navy to buy large landing ship for overseas missions

Sunday, March 28, 2010
Ümit Enginsoy
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

The Turkish Navy is preparing to buy its first landing-platform dock
able to carry up to eight helicopters as it seeks to gain the
capability for overseas amphibious force deployment as part of NATO
and peacekeeping efforts.

The prime contractor for the $500 million project will be a local
company, but because of the high degree of technology transfer
required, there will also be heavy foreign-industry involvement,
procurement officials said.

The Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry, or SSM, Turkey’s
defense-procurement agency, opened a competition in late February
among seven domestic companies that are expected to establish
partnerships with foreign counterparts, including Italian, South
Korean, Spanish, Dutch, French, British and German firms, according to
procurement officials and business sources familiar with the program.

The landing dock will be required to be able to deploy a
battalion-sized force of up to 1,000 troops and personnel, eight
utility helicopters, three unmanned aerial vehicles, 13 tanks and 81
armored vehicles. The expected price tag of more than $500 million for
the landing dock does not include the helicopters to be deployed on
the ship.

Decision expected next year

The Defense Industry Executive Committee, Turkey’s top decision-making
body on defense procurement, is expected to select a winner of the
competition next year. The committee’s members include the prime
minister, the defense minister, the chief of the Turkish General Staff
and the SSM chief.

A landing platform dock, or LPD, is an amphibious warship that
transports elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare
missions.

`We have long needed this capability for NATO rapid deployment and
peacekeeping missions overseas, from Bosnia to Somalia and
Afghanistan,’ said one defense official.

Presently, the navies of more than 10 countries, including Britain,
China, France, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United
States, have the LPD capability.

Turkey is expected to spend slightly more than $4 billion on defense
procurement this year. In recent years, it has focused on Navy
programs, including multibillion-dollar efforts for the joint
production with Germany of six modern submarines and the mostly local
manufacture of 12 corvette warships.
From: Baghdasarian