BY : Feza Newspaper

Parallel to the easing of long-standing sanctions against Pakistan by the US, Turkey has begun to increase defense industry relations with this country, starting with a plan to upgrade the US-made Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters in the inventory of the Pakistani Air Force.

Pakistani and US sources told Today’s Zaman that around 36 Pakistani Block 15 (oldest version) F-16 A/Bs will be upgraded by the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAİ). The Pakistani F-16s will receive a mid-life upgrade that primarily involves replacement of avionics and structural modifications bringing them close to Block 40 standards. The US recently gave permission for these upgrades. Belgium’s SABCA and Netherlands’ Fokker were also bidders in the tender for the upgrade of the Pakistani F-16s. But the Turkish option gained prominence when Islamabad used its preference in favor of Turkey, Turkish defense industry sources said.

Under the deal, two or three Pakistani F-16s are expected to be upgraded at the TAI facilities, while the remaining F-16s will be upgraded in Pakistan, either at the Sargodhi F-16 base in Punjab or in Kamra, around 50 kilometers outside of Islabamad, at the Pac-Kamra aircraft factory.

Despite close political ties between the two countries, Turkish-Pakistani defense industry relations have not grown, due mainly to restrictions on US-made weapons in the Turkish military's inventory requiring Washington's permission for sales to and upgrades for third countries. Meanwhile, the US has completed a delivery of 14 second-hand F-16s to Pakistan under a foreign military sales deal signed in 2005.

New deals with Pakistan

Local defense contractor Aselsan has long been a strategic partner of Islamabad for the production of army field radios at a military facility in Pakistan.

Aselsan will also provide the Pakistani navy with four gyro-stabilized 25 millimeter guns under a deal signed almost a month ago.

Meanwhile, local contractor Havelsan sold Pakistan a $28 million tactical simulated range Electronic Warfare (EW) system to deter surface-to-air threats and for use in electronic warfare. Turkey and Pakistan earlier agreed to cooperate in research and development on a broad range of defense projects, including the joint production of cluster bombs. There have been ongoing talks on the progress of cooperation in various areas.

Some of the areas identified as potential fields for cooperation in defense, research, technology and production include:

Nuclear, biological and chemical detection, protection and decontamination equipment produced in Turkey

81 millimeter mortar ammunition

Production of cluster bombs with 300 to 400 bomblets each for different missions

Production of precision-guided munitions

Detection systems for use against improvised explosive devices

Precision-guided bomblets for conventional munitions

Cooperation in the sale and production of 122 millimeter short-range and long-range multiple rocket launcher ammunition. Turkey's Roketsan and the Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK) are proposing sales and joint production with Pakistan.