ANKARA, Turkey — Nine potential bidders have signaled their interest in Turkey's effort to acquire aircraft stand-off jammer (SOJ) capabilities, the country's procurement agency said.

According to the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), A total of nine Turkish and international companies obtained copies of a request for information (RfI) potentially to take part in the critical Turkish program. to earn the country's aircraft stand-off jammer (SOJ) capabilities. The possible bidders are pan-European Airbus Defence & Space Miliary Aircraft; Turkey's Aselsan A.S.; Turkish firm Duygu Havacilik Ve Savunma Sanayi Ticaret A.S.; a partnership of the Turkish company Esen Sistem and US company Sierra Nevada Corp.; Turkish company Ortadogu Muhendislik Insaat Savunma Teknolojileri Sanayi Yazilim Ve Ticaret A.S.; Turkey's Probil Bilgi Islem Destek ve Danismanlik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.; Turkish company Savronik; Selex ES, part of Italy's Finmeccanica; and Tempus Applied Solutions LLC, Williamsburg, Virginia.

Industry sources expect the new SOJ program to cost Turkey about $200 million.

Although a local Turkish company has engaged in talks with foreign aircraft manufacturers to build an SOJ system, SSM earlier launched a parallel program to procure similar systems.

The new SOJ program is dubbed Golge, or "shadow" in Turkish. It involves "production, delivery and acceptance of the systems; installation and integration of mission equipment into the systems; construction of barracks and buildings; test and assessment of the systems; maintenance, repairs, technical support, spare parts; supply of ground support equipment and their spare parts and overall training."

Among the potential bidders, military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey's biggest defense company, already is engaged in a similar program to provide Turkey SOJ capabilities to the country, but procurement officials admit some delays in thisthat parallel program.

In the late 1990s, Turkey decided to buy four aircraft (with an option to buy four more) and 10 ground stations for long-range jamming capabilities, targeting both enemy communications and radars. In the mid-2000s, the program was split into two — air and land. In July 2009, Aselsan won a $71 million contract to develop a prototype system for the land forces. That program is still progressing.

In 2007, Aselsan also was tasked to act as prime contractor and to co-produce, with foreign technological assistance, a system for the Air Force. In 2008, a request for information was issued to aircraft-makers Antonov, Bombardier, Boeing, Airbus, Cessna, Gulfstream and Embraer.

The next yearIn 2009, the Turkish government ordered Aselsan to produce and outfit a selected business jet or a regional passenger jet with a locally developed SOJ system. Aselsan negotiated with aircraft manufacturers until 2012 and issued a request for proposals to potential bidders for the acquisition of four aircraft.

Bids were placed in 2013 but the contract held the aircraft manufacturer responsible for systems integration. Since then, Aselsan has been in negotiations with Gulfstream.

Email: bbekdil@defensenews.com

Burak Ege Bekdil was the Turkey correspondent for Defense News.

Share:
More In Defense News