Turkey agrees to buy AWACS jets

Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s military and political leaders have agreed to award Boeing a contract for the purchase of at least six AWACS aircraft that would strengthen the country’s radar surveillance capabilities, reports said Saturday.

Turkey started negotiating the $1.5 billion contract for Airborne Warning and Control System planes with Boeing last year. Turkey had said it would open talks with U.S. company Raytheon Corp. if negotiations with Boeing failed.

Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, deputy chief of military staff, said late Friday that Turkish leaders had agreed to purchase the aircraft from Boeing and that officials were working with the company for a final contract, the Anatolia news agency reported from Washington, D.C. The general is in the United States for talks with U.S. military officials.

Hurriyet newspaper said Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit signed the agreement on Friday hours before he was admitted to hospital for a fractured rib and leg vein problem.

The purchase of the powerful radar-tracking planes is a major step in Turkey’s ambitious multibillion-dollar modernization program and will help overcome a gap in radar surveillance.

Turkey was expected to buy six or seven planes.

The AWACS planes use radar, navigation and friend-or-foe identification systems that far exceed the capabilities of ground-based computers.

Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO, but with thousands of miles of land and sea border, it admits to a shortfall in its radar surveillance.

The country is expected to spend some $150 billion over the next two decades purchasing new tanks and helicopters and expanding its air force and navy.

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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