‘Nothing more natural’: Turkey-Qatar procurement business flourishes
By:
Burak Ege Bekdil 1 day ago
By: Burak Ege Bekdil
In parallel efforts, procurement relations also started to prosper. In 2015, military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey’s largest defense firm, won a subcontract to outfit planned Turkish assault and patrol boats for the Qatari Coast Guard.
At the beginning of 2017, Turkey’s state-controlled military software company Havelsan built an AgustaWestland AW139 full-flight simulator for the Qatari military. At least 1,000 pilots will be trained annually at the center in Qatar’s al-Udaid military base. Turkey has already provided training for 55 Qatari military helicopter pilots.
Queuing up for bigger programs, a Qatari investment fund acquired a 50 percent stake in BMC, a leading Turkish armored vehicles manufacturer. BMC is one of three bidders in a multibillion-dollar contract for the serial production of an eventual batch of 1,000 indigenous new-generation Turkish main battle tanks. BMC competes with Otokar and FNSS in the contest for the serial production of the Altay.
BMC also is a bidder in a five-way competition to design, develop and produce the power pack (consisting of the engine and the transmission system) for the Altay.
Once proven, BMC aims to export the Altay to Qatar, the Gulf and Middle Eastern regions and to Asian markets, company officials say. In 2015, BMC partnered with Germany’s Rheinmetall and Malaysia’s Etika Strategi to launch a Turkey-based joint venture, RBSS.
“Qatar is a strong political ally,” said a senior Turkish diplomat dealing with the Gulf region. “There is nothing more natural that allies embark on joint procurement programs and partnerships.”
More recently, a Turkish shipyard, Ares, delivered to Qatar the first of a batch fast Coast Guard patrol vessels, the 150 Hercules OPV. The ships will be operated by the Qatari Interior Ministry.
The 48-meter-long ship can reach a maximum speed of 30 knots and will be used for patrolling, anti-smuggling, counterterrorism and other operations.
“There are strong prospects of a meaningful increase [in Turkish arms exports] in the next five years, especially when Turkish companies will engage in systems integration, content, subsystems and start producing engines for aerial, naval and land platforms,” said Ozgur Eksi, a senior analyst at the Istanbul-based C4defence.com.
A procurement official said that land and naval platforms will have particularly strong prospects of sales to Qatar. “Manufacturers [of land and naval platforms], especially armored vehicles makers, have very good chances to win new deals, ” he said.
https://www.defensenews.com/industr...turkey-qatar-procurement-business-flourishes/