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Tank modernization contract with Israel firm under investigation
A contract worth $687.5 for the modernization of 170 M60 tanks was awarded to Israel Military Industries (IMI) on March 29, 2002. Turkey paid over $4 million for the modernization of each tank. Although Turkey made its payments regularly to IMI, the company failed to finish the project by the final deadline, set for last October. The deadline for the delivery of the tanks had been changed several times before, and the company has recently delivered 100 out of the 170 modernized tanks.
According to the Bugün daily, technical problems have emerged in many of the tanks delivered. Thirty-two out of the 100 tanks had problems in their reverse gears. These tanks were returned to IMI. It was also revealed that one-third of the tanks sent back to the Israeli firm also had problems in their periscopes, which enable drivers or tank commanders to inspect their surroundings without leaving the safety of the tank.
A ceremony that would be held in Kayseri early this week to mark the delivery of the last modernized tank has been postponed to April 7. With regard to allegations that Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül approved the project and has his signature on it, Gönül told Bugün that when he assumed the ministry in 2002, the tender process had been launched, the project had been approved and the initial payments had been made to the Israeli firm.
The minister also said no request was made to the ministry for the cancellation of the project, so the ministry did not feel any need to make such a move. The tank upgrade deal signed with Turkey reportedly saved the Israeli firm from the verge of bankruptcy. It was revealed that the Israeli Finance Ministry had demanded the closure of IMI in 2001 on the grounds that this would relieve the state treasury. Turkey making such a big investment in the M60 tanks spurred a debate as to whether such an investment was reasonable for the 1960 model tanks.
At the time the deal was signed with IMI, Turkey signed another deal named the “Modern Tank Project” with Ukraine for the new generation T-72 tanks, paying $3 million for each tank.
It has been reported that then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu and Land Forces Commander Gen. Şener Eruygur were behind the contract being granted to the Israeli firm. Despite the reservations of bureaucrats at the Defense Ministry Undersecretariat and the government, led by the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Kıvrıkoğlu and Eruygur insisted that the contract be awarded to the Israeli firm. In the end, the tank modernization project was granted to the Israeli firm without even holding a tender.
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