Türkiye'ye EF-2000 Typhoon Teklifi

En son IDEF – 2005 fuarında gövde gösterisi yapan Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon, Türkiye için ciddi olarak ağırlığını koymaya başladı..

Eurofighter Group Seeks Turkey’s Partnership

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

DENİZ AKŞİN

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News

Eurofighter GmbH, the four-nation European consortium that is building the new generation Eurofighter Typhoon jet, has invited the Turkish government to join the partnership “with no entry ticket” required.

Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Bertolone of Alenia Aeronautica, the Italian partner in the Eurofighter consortium, said during a news conference on Monday that the group offers a “fast lane” for Turkey to increase its role in the global aerospace industry, saying the group “wants to share a common vision [with Turkey] in partnership.”

“The Eurofighter is the largest single defense procurement program in Europe. The Eurofighter program represents the bridge to the European aerospace and defense industry, a community of more than 400 companies all across Europe, more than 100,000 highly skilled jobs and state of the art technology with the highest engineering capability in the world,” he said.

Initially, Turkey agreed to join the production of 3,000 high-tech, next-generation supersonic JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) jets, which was outlined in a contract signed between Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon. The program is the largest contract in the U.S. Department of Defense's history, worth more than $300 billion. Lockheed Martin will lead the work to build more than 3,000 supersonic JSF jets. Deliveries should begin in 2012.

Turkey formally joined the program in July 2002, agreeing to pay $175 million for partnership in the JSF's SDD phase, which involves eight U.S. allies in addition to the United States. Major contributor Britain is the only Level One partner along with the United States in this phase, with a $2 billion contribution. Italy and the Netherlands, two Level Two nations, have agreed to contribute $1 billion and $800 million, respectively. Turkey, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Australia are Level Three participants, paying around $200 million each.

In a key procurement policy change this year, Turkey said it is no longer solely committed to purchasing the U.S.-designed JSF for its next generation fighter aircraft program but it is also considering buying the Eurofighter, its European alternative.

“At the end of next year we will see if we can take part in the production phase of the JSF," said Murad Bayar, head of the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry, during a recent interview. "As a result of an assessment, we may buy only the JSF, only the Eurofighter or a combination of both."

Turkey's announcement also came at a time when the Eurofighter consortium has been the leading lobby trying to attract Turkey's further interest in joining the program. Enzo Casolini, senior vice president of military cooperation of Alenia Aeronautica, said during the press conference that the Eurofighter group was involved in meetings with Turkish officials. “We want to make Turkey our partner,” he said.

“This is the largest European procurement program in the world, and it is based on [Italy, United Kingdom, Spain and Germany's] ‘equal partnership' of four nations,” said Andy Lewis, vice president of export sales support of Alenia Aeronautica.

According to a statement issued by Alenia Aeronautica, the Eurofighter Typhoon is considered the world's most advanced wing-role combat aircraft. It has been developed by aerospace companies Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, EADS in Germany and EADS CASA from the four partner countries.

The Eurofighter partner nations plan to take delivery of 620 aircraft: 180 for Germany, 121 for Italy, 87 for Spain and 232 for the United Kingdom. An additional export order of 18 Eurofighter Typhoons has been signed with the government of Austria.

Regarding the form of the partnership with Turkey, Lewis said they are “exploring with Turkish officials and the industry, the optimal format for Turkey's participation.”

“We want to see the most appropriate way forward, we want to see what's a good deal for all of us,” Lewis added.

In the meantime, Casolini said that the Eurofighter consortium was analyzing Turkey's fleet of fighters.

“The JSF will replace some part of the Turkish fleet, and the other part can be replaced with the Eurofighter Typhoon,” Casolini said.

“The Eurofighter fits to replace Turkey's existing F4 fleet, while the JSF will replace F16s,” he noted.

“Experiences from recent conflicts (such as in Balkans) have confirmed the need for strong first day attack options in addition to multi-leveled attack capabilities,” said Enzo Vecciarelli, Eurofighter senior official group member from the Italian Air Force.

Vecciarelli added that best solution, in terms of a product mix, could be reached through the two main aspects of each plane's capabilities, which are, air-to-air with the Eurofighter and air-to-ground with the JSF.

Eurofighter Typhoon'un üretilmiş ve üretilmesi planlanan versiyonlarının özellikleri şu şekilde:

Tranche–I

IPA (Instrumented Production Aircraft): İlk seri üretim versiyonu.

Block 1: PSP 1 yazılım paketi: Temel eğitim görevleri için yazılım entegrasyonu.

Block 2: PSP 2 yazılım paketi: Uçuş verisi işleme kabiliyeti, DASS (chaff / flare), PIRATE-FLIR, DVI sesli uyarı sistemi, otomatik pilot; AIM-9L, AIM-120B, ASRAAM, makineli top sertifikasyonları.

PSP 3 yazılım paketi: Striker HMDS, MIDS Datalink, ilave radar modları, tam fonksiyonlu DASS, PIRATE IRST; IRIS-T (analog) sertifikasyonları.

PSP 4 yazılım paketi: Striker HMDS için gece görüş kabiliyeti, hava-yer görevleri için yazılım entegrasyonu, otomatik pilot yazılım upgrade’i, alçak irtifa uçuş ikaz sistemi; Paveway II, GBU-10, GBU-16 sertifikasyonları.

Tranche-II

Block 8: Hardware ve görev bilgisayarı upgrade’i.

Block 10: EOC 1 yazılım paketi: Hareketli dijital harita, iyileştirilmiş DASS, IFF Mode 5, ACMI; AIM-120C-5, IRIS-T (dijital), AIM-9P (Avusturya için), GBU-24, GPS güdümlü mühimmat, ALARM, Paveway II / III sertifikasyonları.

Block 15: EOC 2 yazılım paketi: METEOR, TAURUS, Storm Shadow, Brimstone sertifikasyonları.

Tranche-III

Block 20: EOC 3 yazılım paketi, egzoz yönlendirme sistemi (thrust vectoring), AESA radar, gerçek zamanlı veri aktarım kabiliyeti, IR iz azaltılması.

Block 25: EOC 4 yazılım paketi, radar iz azaltılması

Dolayısıyla silah taşıma kabiliyetine göre Tranche / Block durumu şu şekildedir:

Tranche-I, Block 2: 27 mm top (hava-hava), AIM-9L, ASRAAM, AIM-120A/B

Tranche-I, Block 5: IRIS-T (analog), 27 mm top (hava-hava + hava-yer), Paveway II, GBU-10/16, Mk serisi klasik bomba.

Tranche-II, Block 10: IRIS-T (dijital), Paveway IV, Mk-13/18 GBU-32 JDAM, Lightning III pod, AIM-9P (Avusturya için)

Tranche-II, Block 15: AIM-120C-5, METEOR, Paveway III, GBU-24, Mk-84, BLU-109, ALARM, TAURUS, Storm Shadow, Brimstone

Görüldüğü gibi Tranche-II'deki en büyük yenilik hardware+görev bilgisayarı ve ilave yazılımlardır. Çok rollülük kabiliyeti Tranche-1 Block 5 ile kazanılmaktadır ve bu Block serisinin üretimine 2006'da başlanması planlanmıştır. 2007'de bitecek Tranche-I Block 5 üretiminden sonra Tranche-II'lerin üretiminin 2007-2011 arasında gerçekleştirilmesi öngörülmektedir (Block 8: 2007; Block 10: 2008-2009; Block 15: 2010-2011).