Turkey Signs Deal for Six Submarines
By AMI INTERNATIONAL INC.
The Turkish Undersecretariat for Defense Industry (SSM) has signed an estimated $3.52 billion contract with ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems’ Kiel,
Germany-based Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft
(HDW) unit and London’s Marine Force International
LLP for six Type-214 air-independent propulsion (AIP)
submarines. The contract calls for the delivery of six
material packages to Turkey, with construction taking
place at the Golcuk Naval Shipyard.
HDW will pre-assemble structural and mechanical
parts, as well as the AIP system, in Germany and ship
them to Turkey. The contract includes an 80-percent
offset agreement, which primarily will be found in
technology transfer and local construction agreements.
The contract follows the July 2008 announcement
that HDW was the preferred supplier. The first unit
will enter service in 2015 and begin replacing the
Atilay class boats that were commissioned from 1976
through 1990.
Unlike earlier Type 209/1200s and Type 209/1400s
supplied to Turkey, which had very limited domestic
industry involvement, the Type 214 program will
include many Turkish companies in a variety of roles.
The Type 214s will have the traditional German AIP system that
employs the polymer electrolyte
membrane fuel cell technology
that was developed jointly by
HDW and Siemens AG.
defense and industry sources. The first is that the
Ministry of Defence is facing severe budgetary shortfalls. Other reasons are political.
There is a growing call in the United Kingdom to disestablish the nation’s nuclear deterrent capability. The
British government also is awaiting the outcome of the
five-year review conference of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) that will take place in
the United States next year. The NPT conference may
indicate a reduction in the nuclear threat and less justification to replace the Vanguard class.
Two other major question marks at this time are the
recently negotiated nuclear arms reduction talks between
the United States and Russia and the now pending Nuclear
Posture Review that is taking place in the United States.
With so many policy unknowns developing over the
next several months, and the U.K. budget scenario getting worse, defense and industry sources said it makes
sense for the Ministry of Defence and Royal Navy to put
the brakes on the Vanguard replacement program in
order to clarify the future requirements and establish
framework for developing the U.S. and U.K. ballistic-missile submarine fleets.
Royal Navy Delays SSBN
Replacement Program
The U.K. Royal Navy is delaying its
Initial Gate milestone decision on
the Vanguard SSBN replacement
submarine by one year, to 2010.
Initial Gate approval would
have provided a green light to
move forward with contract
awards for a detailed design for the
new submarine. It also would have
committed the government to
spend the initial $4.9 billion for
the program this year.
The delay can be attributed to
several reasons, according to
U.S. NAVY
A crowd of Navy officials and Boeing workers look over the Boeing-built
P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft during a July 30 roll-out ceremony
at the company’s plant in Seattle. The P-8A is scheduled to begin operational service in 2013 as a replacement for the P-3C Orion.
