Turkey-China $3.44 Billion T-LORAMIDS Deal Scrapped Due To NATO Concern

Turkey has canceled a $3.4 billion long-range missile defense system tender which was provisionally awarded to China, a move that had stirred U.S. and Western concern, an official at the Turkish prime minister's office told Reuters on Sunday.

Chinese built HQ-9 Air Defense Missile System at "Victory Day Parade".

NATO member Turkey in 2013 had chosen China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp as the preferred candidate for the deal, sparking Western worries over inherent security risks from Chinese technology.

"It has been decided that this tender will be canceled," an official at Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office said. "This decision has been signed off by the Prime Minister this week."

An official from Turkey's Defense Industry Undersecretariat, which has run the technical negotiations with China, said in July that a major stumbling block has been China's reluctance to make a technology transfer which could give Turkey the knowledge to operate the system and eventually replicate it.

The prime ministry official said Ankara was now planning to go solo. "Turkey will now launch its own project to build such a defense system," he said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, asked about the tender being canceled, said on Monday he did "not have any knowledge on the relevant matter". He did not elaborate.

Turkey had given mixed messages on whether it was planning to integrate the system with NATO infrastructure or not and U.S. and European allies has wanted Turkey to use a system that is compatible with NATO's air defense.

During the tender, U.S. firm Raytheon put in an offer with its Patriot missile defense system. Franco-Italian group Eurosam, owned by the multinational European missile maker MBDA and France's Thales, came second in the tender.

Source:  Reuters 

FD-2000 / HQ-9 Surface to Air Missile (SAM) System Wins Turkish Contract

Turkey has announced that Chinese defense firm China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CPMIEC) has won $4 billion contract to joint produce long-range air and missile defense systems (T-LORAMIDS). Chinese FD-2000 / HQ-9 Surface to Air Missile (SAM) System has defeated U.S. Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) and PAC-2 low to high-altitude surface-to-air (SAM), Russian S-400, and French-Italian Eurosam Samp-T to win T-LORAMIDS contract.

From The Showcase of Zuhai: Anti-Ballistic Target Missile

Turkey again extends bidding deadline for LORAMIDS tender

The Turkish Government has asked companies competing for the country's long-range air and missile defence systems (LORAMIDS) contract to extend the validity of their bids. The Turkish Undersecretary for Defence Industry (SSM) was cited by Reuters as saying in a statement that the companies have been directed to extend their proposals until the end of 2015.

HQ-9 (FD-2000 for export version) TEL with Engagement-Radars-1S

 

Turkey originally selected China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp's (CPMIEC) FD-2000 missile defence system for the tender in September 2013, rejecting proposals from Russian Rosoboronexport, US Raytheon and Eurosam Consortium. Raytheon had offered its Patriot surface-to-air (SAM) missile, while Rosoboronexport and Eurosam proposed the S-400, and Aster 30 sol-air moyenne portée terrestre (SAMP/T) missile system, respectively.

While the contract was initially set as $4bn, the value was reportedly reduced as CPMIEC lowered its proposal to around $3.4bn. CPMIEC also offered to collaborate with Turkish prime and subcontractors to coproduce the system that comprises radar, launcher and intercept missiles, and is expected to enable Turkey to counter both enemy aircraft and missiles.

Despite provisionally awarding the contract to CPMIEC, Turkey later asked the competitors to 'reconsider' their bids in wake of strong pressure from the international community, including Nato and the US. CPMIEC is under US sanctions for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-Proliferation Act since February 2013, according to the news agency. A member of the Nato military alliance, Turkey long hoped to produce its own air-defence system to prevent any influx of the violence in Syria, and has been relying on Nato's Patriot system for the same since 2012.

Made in China? US warns Turkey its missile deal with Beijing may be incompatible with NATO

Washington is talking to Ankara over a $3.4 billion Turkish-Chinese deal, in which the two countries agreed to co-produce a long-range air and missile defense system. The US claims the outcome may not be compatible with the existing NATO defense network. 

China's FD-2000 / HQ-9 SAM system

In a surprise move for its NATO allies, Turkey announced in September it was going to award a new missile defense contract to China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp (CPMIEC).

The Chinese defense firm, which has been sanctioned by the US for alleged violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-proliferation Act, has been chosen to co-produce the FD-2000 system with Turkish specialists. CPMIEC claims the system not only beats in price, but also comes up to the quality of its rivals – the Russian S-300, the French-Italian Eurosam SAMP/T, and the American Patriots.

Now the US has started “expert discussions” with Turkey regarding the defense tender, according to US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone quoted by Reuters.

“We are very concerned about the prospective deal with the sanctioned Chinese firm. Yes this is a commercial decision, it is Turkey’s sovereign right, but we are concerned about what it means for allied air defense,” Ricciardone told reporters on Thursday. 

He added that Turkey is entitled to “its own decision after examining the facts.” Earlier, Turkey signaled that the decision was not final, and that it could back away if its allies’ concerns proved to be true.

So far, NATO officials quoted by Reuters said it was “premature” to say whether the purchased technologies will have problems operating within the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System.

However, Ankara’s allies have already expressed their disappointment with the move, which comes months after NATO deployed several Patriot batteries in Turkey to “safeguard” it against possible strikes from Syrian territory.

But according to experts, Turkey had its reasons to prefer the Chinese deal, and they had nothing to do with the price of the systems.

China’s offer of transferring the design technology to Turkey was a decisive factor in its decision, Atilla Sandikli, the chairman of think-tank Bilgesam and a former high-level officer in the Turkish army, told Reuters.

“The only reason why Turkey didn’t have them [the air defense systems] until now is because they wanted to achieve the technological information and know-how to produce these systems,” Sandikli said. “I think Turkey’s choice is a message to its NATO allies in this sense.”  

Media reports said the much-delayed, 2009-announced Turkish defense tender had been dragging until recently because Ankara was reluctant to purchase missile systems off the shelf, and wanted design information included to produce home-grown batteries.

As US export laws would not allow technology transfer, American military giants Raytheon and Lockheed reportedly refused to enter such a deal.

The Chinese, on the other hand, have been more than willing to provide design information to its sales partners, and, according to Nihat Ali Ozcan, analyst at Ankara-based think-tank TEPAV, China and Turkey have already started to co-operate on short-range missile defense systems.

China itself has been drawing on Russian know-how and, partly, Western technologies when designing its own systems, Russian military experts have said.

Chinese military producers have been known for cloning defense technologies, leading to such renowned manufacturers as Russia’s Sukhoi ask for legal guarantees there will not be attempts to copy their latest export models. At the same time, Russia has been supplying some of the components and technologies to China under earlier contracts.

When it comes to the FD-2000 system that Turkey may acquire, the Chinese marketing material and press reports state that its missiles, launchers, radars, vehicles and support systems are all designed and built in China. 

It is said to be effective in intercepting high performance strike aircraft, helicopters, a range of missiles, precision guided bombs, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. The advertising goes that the system also remains effective during heavy air strikes and electronic interference.

China’s military exports have been on the rise in the recent years, with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) ranking it as the world’s fifth biggest arms supplier in the five years to 2012. According to SIPRI, China has already surpassed the UK’s arms exports.

Reports in China’s state-run military press suggested the sale of the missile defense system to Turkey would open the door to even further high technology orders from the West and other markets. 

rt.com/news

US to sanction Turkey`s planned purachse of HQ-9 missile system

FD2000 HQ-9 for turkey

The U.S. Congress is set to adopt a law next week forbidding Turkey from using American funds to acquire a $4 billion missile system from a Chinese company blacklisted by Washington. The United States has voiced deep concern over Turkey's decision in September to enter negotiations with China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corporation for its first long-range anti-missile system. CPMIEC, which makes the HQ-9 missile system, is under U.S. sanctions for selling arms and missile technology to Iran and Syria. 

Turkey's move also irritated its allies in NATO, which has said missile systems within the transatlantic military alliance must be compatible with each other. The annual U.S. defense authorization bill, passed Thursday by the House, contains a clause barring the use of "2014 funds to integrate missile defense systems of the People's Republic of China into U.S. missile defense systems.

Such a system would not be compatible with, and should not be integrated with, missile defense systems of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," the Senate and House Armed Services Committees said. Without U.S. subsidies, the cost for Turkey to install the Chinese missiles becomes steeper. The bill is expected to be approved in the Senate next week, before being signed into law by President Barack Obama. CPMIEC beat competition from a U.S. partnership of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, Russia's Rosoboronexport, and Italian-French consortium Eurosam for the multibillion-dollar deal. These companies have until January 31 to submit new bids.