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Mike
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01.11.2004 21:59:21
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Рубрики
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Современность; Танки;
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танки в обмен на демократию :)
закупки подержанных танков в обмен на переговоры об условияъ вступления в ЕС :)
Tank Deal Awaits EU Decision on Turk Membership
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A tank deal between Turkey and Germany will go through after the European Union sets a date for Ankara to start formal membership talks with the 25-nation bloc, Turkish and German officials said.
The sale of nearly 250 second-hand Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks could be sealed shortly after the Dec. 17 meeting of EU leaders.
“There has been major progress for a deal,” a senior Turkish military official said. “We hope December’s summit will remove the last remaining political obstacle.”
Although Germany and Turkey are NATO allies, Berlin has declined to sell some weapons to Ankara because of concerns over human rights.
But the EU Commission’s Oct. 6 decision to recommend accession talks also opened the door to more arms sales, German Defense Minister Peter Struck said.
A German diplomat here said that both Ankara and Berlin were keen to pen a deal on the Leopard tanks.
“For practical purposes, a date will remove the reasons we have been reluctant on arms sales to Turkey,” the diplomat said.
The Leopard 2 is built by the Munich-based firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. Variations of it have been sold to Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Finland and Greece also have placed orders.
A visit to Germany by Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, deputy chief of general staff, “concluded the technical part of a deal,” a procurement official said here. “There was an understanding for an eventual purchase of nearly 250 tanks. That’s going to be the first batch. More will follow.”
He did not say how many tanks in total Turkey intended to purchase.
Defense analysts price a second-hand Leopard 2A4 at around $2 million. They also say a proposed Leopard deal would cost Turkey much less than upgrading its aging M60 main battle tanks — some of which date to 1948.
Israel Military Industries, Ramat Hasharon, Israel, is upgrading 170 Turkish M60 tanks, a deal worth nearly $700 million. More M60s are scheduled for upgrades.
“If the Leopard deal goes ahead, Ankara will inevitably question the wisdom of the M60 upgrade program,” a defense analyst based here said. “There is a trade-off between the upgraded M60s and the Leopards.”
The procurement official said that should a deal be penned and Leopards begin arriving in Turkey, they would be modernized by Aselsan, a military-owned electronics company based here.
“Aselsan will upgrade the Leopards’ fire control systems with local technology,” he said. “There may be a few other minor upgrade options to be carried out by the local industry for better operability.
С уважением, Mike.