Special to WorldTribune.com
ANKARA — Turkey has again extended the deadline of its ballistic missile defense tender.
The Defense Industry Undersecretariat, known as SSM, extended the deadline for the procurement of a BMD system by another two months.
Hours before the expiration, SSM, which selected a Chinese platform, informed bidders that the deadline was moved from April 30 to June 30.
“The extension was expected as Turkey has not decided to formally award a contract to the Chinese,” an industry source said.
This marked the third extension of the BMD tender. In September 2013, SSM selected China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp., which offered its HQ-9 system, valued at $3.4 billion, far less than platforms from Europe and the United States.
Two consortium have been drafting bids meant to compete with China Precision. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were offering the PAC-3 while Eurosam briefed Ankara on its Aster-30 system. Officials said Aster-30 was ranked second to CPMIEC, followed by the U.S. bid. A fourth competitor, Russia’s S-400 was eliminated by SSM.
Turkish sources said SSM was still negotiating with China regarding
co-production and technology transfer. They said a key requirement called for
the development of an HQ-9 variant interoperable with NATO’s BMD network.
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