Air Force Commander Gen. Aydoğan Babaoğlu recently informed the SSM, the country's major arms procurement body, about the force's choice of the ITT electronic warfare (EW) systems instead of the AN/ALQ-178(V)+ airborne radar warning and jamming system (Spews II Plus) currently produced by the partnership of BAE Systems North America and local ASELSAN-Mikes, under license in Turkey. There are plans to mount the Spews II Plus EW systems in 2010 on the Block 50 and 58 single-seated F-16s. The 30 AIDEWS are estimated to cost around $120 million and the ITT will provide offsets of $60 million.After several years of negotiations, in January 2003 the SSM signed a $228 million deal with local ASELSAN-Mikes and BAE Systems North America for the co-production of the Spews II Plus. The SSM had earlier insisted on the installation of the Spews II Plus EW systems on the 30 F-16s so that local development of the EW program would continue, contributing to the growth of local industry, and because the systems currently being produced for 58 F-16s were thought to be sufficient.
In addition, those from within the military and the SSM argued that with the Spews II Plus EW systems, Turkish control over the national software source codes of F-16s would be greater than with the US ITT systems. The US has imposed stricter policies in the past several years over technology transfer.
Those who favored US ITT systems, meanwhile, were concerned that locally developed systems might not be finished in a timely manner, delaying their installation on the 30 F-16s, and they claimed that ITT's AIDEWS was more advanced.
Under a deal signed with the US in May of last year, Turkey will buy 30 new F-16 Block 50 fighters under foreign military sales conditions for an estimated cost of around $1.78 billion, including the EW equipment to be installed on the fighters. The 30 fighters are scheduled to be delivered from mid 2011 until the end of 2012. They are intended to fill the need for fighter jets between 2011 and 2014, when 213 Turkish F-16s will be undergoing modification.
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