Within the scope of Turkey’s $1.5 billion Peace Eagle Project, Turkey purchased early warning and control aircrafts from the US and the electronic support system of these aircrafts were given to Israel in a military auction bid. Two of the four systems were given to Turkey and the remaining two systems are being kept in Israel due to diplomatic conflict between the two countries.
Following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s complaint last week that Israel delayed the delivery of Heron drones Turkey sent to the country for maintenance, it was revealed that Turkey has been dealing with Israel on maintenance issues for some time.
Turkey purchased 10 Herons from Israel in a 2004 tender costing about $183 million. However, the Herons received were not able to reach the altitudes indicated in the contract. Israel delivered the Herons last year and Turkish army officers started to fly them after Israeli technical personnel left Turkey following the diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel. Sources said that two of the Herons are unusable and the other three have engine problems. Five Herons are currently in Israel undergoing repairs. As Turkey is experiencing problems with drones purchased from Israel, the country last year unveiled its own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), ANKA, a surveillance craft able to fly 24 hours at a time over rugged mountains, where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is waging a campaign of terror. However, ANKA is not expected to fly until 2012. While the success of the Turkish-made drone is far from assured, Turkish engineers said they were confident it would become part of the country’s Arsenal.
