Turkey Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

asif iqbal said:

Forbin those photos of ships are to scale ?

Click to expand...

Jura said:

Jul 25, 2017

and
Turkey signs deal to get Russian S-400 air defence missiles

12 September 2017

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

Turkey’s state run news agency Anadolu on Wednesday published an infographic showcasing the capabilities of the country’s new Russian-acquired S-400 missile defense system — and its ability to shoot down U.S. aircraft.


The graphic from the NATO ally’s news agency explains that the new S-400 can hit targets at 400 km away at 4.8 km per second. The infographic also says it can eliminate U.S. aircraft such as the B-52 Stratofortress, B-1 Lancer, F-15, F-16, F-22 Raptor, and several other high tech U.S. aircraft.

Relations between Ankara and Washington have soured since Trump’s decision in May to arm Syrian Kurds in the fight against ISIS.

Ankara believes the Kurdish fighters are no different than the internationally designated terrorist group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

On multiple occasions, Turkey has threatened to conduct a military campaign against the U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters.

Earlier this month, Turkey signed a deal with Russia to acquire the new S-400 air defense system from Russia, in yet another sign of Ankara’s pivot away from its NATO allies, according to a report from the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The deal is believed to be worth almost $2.5 billion.

Russia has several S-400 systems deployed throughout Syria. The system has yet to be tested despite numerous incursions by coalition and Israeli aircraft into the country.

Earlier this month, Israeli warplanes bombed a suspected Syrian chemical weapons and advanced missile base near the town of Masyaf in western Syria, according to the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.

This is not the first time Anaduolu has published controversial material aimed at the U.S. Earlier this summer, the Turkish run news agency published locations of U.S. bases in Syria, according to a report from Military Times.

Click to expand...

Turkey accuses US, Germany of arms embargo
By:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

  15 hours ago
7612

Turkish Minister of Defence Nurettin Canikli delivers a speech during an emergency session on a government request to extend military operations in neighboring Iraq and Syria at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara on Sept. 23, 2017. The minister says “several U.S. and German companies” were implementing a “covered” [indirect] arms embargo on Turkey. (Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has officially accused the United States and Germany of imposing an arms embargo against the country.

Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli has said that “several U.S. and German companies” were implementing a “covered” [indirect] arms embargo on Turkey.

He said those U.S. and German producers were either halting shipments of spare parts of weapons systems to Turkey, or deliberately delaying them.


A senior Turkish diplomat dealing with NATO matters confirmed that some Turkish requests for systems and subsystems have not been addressed by the U.S. and Germany.

“These are systems we need in our fight against terror organizations,” he said, without further elaborating.

A European industry source said that British and French manufacturers could be looking to replace U.S. and German companies in the Turkish market.

“Britain and France have a more pragmatic approach [toward Turkey] than the U.S. and Germany,” the source said. “British and French companies may soon queue up to win Turkish contracts that the Ankara government finds difficult to procure from the U.S. and German companies.”

Ankara has been at odds with Washington over U.S. support for Syrian Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State group. Turkey views Syrian Kurds as a terrorist group while the U.S. considers them allies in fighting radical Islamic militants in Syria.

Turkey’s ties with Germany too have been badly stained this year after several rounds of allegations against Turkey over human rights violations. Germany advocates that the European Union should stop membership talks with Turkey.

Click to expand...

Caterpillar in talks over engine for Turkey's Altay tank
By:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

  14 hours ago
36

Caterpillar and engine-maker Perkins have expressed interest in the power pack for Turkey's indigenous Altay tank program. (Seth Perlman/AP)

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish procurement officials are in talks with the British-based European division of U.S. company Caterpillar over a plan to produce and supply an engine for the Altay, an indigenous, new-generation Turkish tank in the making.

Caterpillar and its U.K.-based partner, engine-maker Perkins, have expressed interest in the power pack for the Altay program, consisting of engine and transmission, Turkish officials said.

“The Caterpillar option is part of a broad defense industry cooperation emerging between Turkey and Britain,” one procurement official said.

Earlier in September, Turkey’s European Union Affairs Minister Omer Celik brought together Turkish and British defense companies, including Caterpillar-Perkins.

Britain’s ambassador to Ankara, Richard Moore, said: “Our defense [industry] cooperation is further improving.”

Under the Altay program, Turkey will produce an initial batch of 250 units. The multibillion-dollar program aims to produce 1,000 tanks in total.

In August Turkey’s defense procurement office, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries invited three Turkish manufacturers to bid for the serial production of the Altay. The contenders are BMC; Otokar, which designed and produced prototypes of the Altay; and FNSS.

Turkey also is in talks with MTU, a German engine maker, and Renk, producer of transmission, for the Altay. But political tension between Turkey and Germany may block any German power solution for the Turkish tank, analysts and officials say.

In addition, Turkish authorities are looking to “nearly 20 options around the globe” for the power pack they need for the Altay, “including in Russia and China.”

Click to expand...

Jura said:

Jul 25, 2017

and DOD concerned by Turkey purchase of Russian air defense system
07/31/17

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

Readout
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
October 11, 2017

The following is attributable to Spokesperson Heather Nauert:

Secretary Tillerson spoke today with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Secretary Tillerson conveyed to the Foreign Minister his profound concern over the detentions of Turkish national employees of our diplomatic mission to Turkey and of several American citizens. Secretary Tillerson emphasized the importance of transparency in the accusations made by the Turkish government and the need for the Turkish government to present the evidence behind these accusations. Secretary Tillerson and Foreign Minister Cavusoglu agreed the two sides would remain in close contact to address U.S. concerns about these detentions.

Click to expand...

asif iqbal said:

TAI killing the pace with ATAK construction

24 out of 59 delivered 35 under construction

44th under construction or the 6th T129B

Click to expand...

At the 8th Marine Systems Seminar, the Turkish Navy’s technical head Admiral Ahmet Çakır announced that the domestically developed Atmaca anti-ship missile (AShM) had undergone a successful test firing.

“We are all closely following the Atmaca project and the first shots are being made and next year we will be shooting on the ship’s platform and we aim to make the Atmaca guided missile we plan to replace Harpoon as a [missile] with superior capability, long range, superior capabilities than Harpoon,” said Çakır.

The Atmaca is similar in capability to the Exocet, C-802 and Harpoon. The Atmaca AShM weighs 800 kg with a 200-kg warhead. It can travel at subsonic speed and can reach a range of up to 200 km. The guidance suite comprises of a INS/GPS system with a terminal-stage active radar-homing (ARH) seeker.

Turkey intends to supplant the Microturbo TRI 40 miniature turbojet engine powering the Atmaca and Stand-off Missile (SOM) air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) with the domestically developed Kale 3500.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

reports that serial production of the Atmaca is scheduled to begin in 2018. The Atmaca will be deployed from the Turkish Navy’s MILGEM Ada-class corvettes and G-Class frigates.

With Turkey’s aim to supplant the Harpoon, the Atmaca should make its way to other surface platforms (e.g. fast attack crafts) as well as aircraft and submarines. The provision of the Kale 3500 will also give the Turkish industry the means to fully-source its stand-off range missiles (i.e. Atmaca and SOM).

Turkey’s aim is to localize the supply of all major munitions, including air-to-air, air-to-surface, surface-to-air and sub-surface solutions. Solutions include the Atmaca, SOM,

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

,

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

,

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

and Akya,

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, Merlin and Peregrine, among others. Many of these weapons on display at the 2017 International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF), which took place in May in Istanbul.

Click to expand...

Turkey plans to boost its military spending significantly next year, according to preliminary budget figures revealed this week.

Turkey is currently the world's 18th-largest military spender, with an estimated 2016 outlay of $14.8 billion, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI)

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, which was released in April. SIPRI notes the figure is an estimate because, since the attempted military coup in July 2016, detailed data has become difficult to obtain.

But one fact is beyond dispute: The government is planning to meet an expected 30% increase in military defense expenditures by direct taxation of its citizens and a series of price hikes to be borne by the public.

The

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

gave parliament a draft 2018 budget Oct. 16 and expects to hand legislators the final proposal Oct. 25. Though education is to receive the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

of the budget, Minister Naci Agbal told local media the huge hike in military spending reflects a "war economy." He cited "geopolitical risks and the budget increases these risks require." He said that of about $7.2 billion in extra revenues to be derived from surcharges on vehicles, fuel, real estate and personal income taxes, about $2.3 billion will be directly allocated to the defense industry. Turkey is expecting a $5.2 billion increase in 2018 defense expenditures.

According to Agbal, in 2018 a supplementary $7.5 billion will be transferred to Turkey’s military/defense budget. Of this new funding, about $2.3 billion will be allotted to the Defense Industry Undersecretariat, which procures Turkey’s weapons systems and equipment. Moreover, the Defense Ministry budget will rise by 41% to $12 billion. The budget of the Interior Ministry will be augmented by 25%, the Gendarmerie Command budget will increase by 42%, while the national police budget will go up by 18% and the National Intelligence Service budget will get an additional 20%.

All told, about $26 billion will be spent on military defense expenditures, out of a total national budget of $195 billion. That amount is likely to put Turkey in SIPRI’s top 15 defense spenders in 2018.

According to Arda Mevlutoglu, a well-placed expert on the Turkish defense industry, a new trend is visible in Turkey’s defense and security spending. He said that because of Turkey’s growth rate, rapid increases in military defense expenditures are not reflected in gross domestic product. Mevlutoglu also cited a notable increase in national manufacturers' income, saying, “For example, while the total revenue of the Turkish defense and aeronautic industries was $1.855 billion between 2006-2016, it is now $5.968 billion.”

Turkey, while updating its national defense and deterrence capacity during the past 10 years, also has been focusing on long-term investments and mobilizing national resources. There was little off-the-shelf procurement to combat security threats, as Ankara believed its defense and security resources were adequate to cope with existing and anticipated threats.

But Mevlutoglu emphasized that, especially with developments in Syria and Iraq, "the nature and dimensions of threats in the region usually exceed the capacity of any one regional country to cope with."

"This requires that a sensitive balance has to be maintained between long-term capacity development nationally" and urgent needs to procure items from outside sources.”

Mevlutoglu elaborated: “In modern combat and similar operations, ammunition consumption usually exceeds all predictions. We saw examples of this in the 1999 NATO operation [against Yugoslavia], 2003 Gulf War, 2011 Libya operation, Yemen operations of the Arab coalition and lately in the US-led coalition operation against the Islamic State. [Long-running] struggles against asymmetric threats in the combat zone [require] serious production and accumulation of ammunition. ... Because of the asymmetric and urban warfare requirements, the need for specific equipment and vehicles, which are usually high-cost items, exceed all expectations.”

Although the predicted budget increases to defend Turkey’s national interests in Syria and Iraq appear high, it's possible such amounts are still inadequate for procurement from national and foreign defense industries. In short, the additional economic burden of further military operations in Syria will be considerably higher than before.

According to the Turkish military's latest figures, released in April, Turkey has 362,284 armed military personnel, excluding the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

. Of that figure, 201 are generals, 25,728 officers, 64,655 noncommissioned officers, 47,167 contract sergeants, 16,018 contract privates first-class and 208,515 nonprofessional conscripts. Only 45% of the Turkish Armed Forces can be classified as fully professional.

With this structure, Turkey has Europe’s second-largest army, if Russia is included.

According to a military source who asked to remain anonymous, about 70% of Turkey’s military/defense spending goes toward personnel expenses. Of the remaining funds, 25% is spent on new weapons systems and only 5% goes to modernization and research and development projects. Obviously, Turkey has to find ways to curtail personnel expenses while transforming to its military to a professional force and reducing its size, without sacrificing operational effectiveness.

The source added that Turkey currently buys more than 60% of its military equipment and supplies from national resources. This ratio will increase to about 70% in three years. Local production is of vital importance for Turkey, but when compared with foreign resources, local costs are far too high. Turkey has to find new markets for its local production to ensure its defense industry's sustained growth.

However, given the lengthy state of emergency, it's been difficult to conduct a transparent debate in parliament and in public on how to cut the number of

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.

That might explain why I couldn’t find a single reliable report, analysis or academic study during my research for Turkey's 2016-2017 defense and security expenditures. There is simply no reliable data for the past two years. Turkey’s already-opaque defense/military expenditures are now concealed behind a screen of secrecy.

Click to expand...