Sunday, June 12, 2011

DTN News - UNREST IN SYRIA: ‘Syrian Army Defectors Tell Of Rape, Indiscriminate, Murder’

Defense News: DTN News - UNREST IN SYRIA: ‘Syrian Army Defectors Tell Of Rape, Indiscriminate, Murder’
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 12, 2011:
Syrian soldiers were told to fire indiscriminately at civilians and raped Syrian women in front of their husbands, reports emerged Sunday morning quoting army defectors who fled to Turkey.

Four soldiers told AFP of instances of rape and murder as Syrian President Bashar Assad‘s forces crack down on anti-regime demonstrations throughout the country forcing thousands of civilians to escape to Turkey.

One soldier said the “cleansing” in Rastan in Homs caused him to defect. “We were told that people were armed there. But when we arrived, we saw that they were ordinary civilians. We were ordered to shoot them,” he said.

“When we entered the houses, we opened fire on everyone, the young, the old… Women were raped in front of their husbands and children,” he said, predicting that there were some 700 deaths, although this has not been verified.

Another soldier, Khalaf, told AFP that in a town near the Turkish border, “a professional soldier pulled out his knife and stabbed a civilian in the head, for no reason.”

He said he decided to flee after he saw militiamen open fire on people. “When they started shooting people, I dropped my gun and fled,” he said, claiming that around 25 people were killed in a demonstration last week.

Khalaf’s brother, Ahmed said after witnessing violence in Homs, “I realized that the regime is prepared to massacre everyone.” He said he and other soldiers considered revolting against the army forces, but were too fearful.

Ahmed added that “when the soldiers do not shoot, they shoot the soldiers down,” claiming that the Assad regime has deployed snipers from the police or the Hezbollah militia.

A fourth soldier also told AFP that soldiers were shot when they tried to flee. Refusing to enter Homs last week, he said he chose to escape.

“I knew that if we entered the city, we should kill many people. We all took different ways [to run away],” he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the White House on Saturday accused the Syrian government of creating a humanitarian crisis and urged it to halt its crackdown on civilians and give the Red Cross immediate, unfettered access to the country’s northern region.

SYRIANS FLEE TO TURKEY AS ASSAD TANKS SHELL TOWN AND TROOPS STORM IN TO QUELL ...

Daily Mail - ‎32 minutes ago‎
By Daily Mail Reporter Syrian tanks and troops stormed a border town overnight in the latest assault to crush a three-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The attack on Jisr al-Shughour, led by Assad's brother Maher, sent more people ...

US: SYRIA CREATING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS ‎

BBC News - ‎1 hour ago‎
The United States says an ongoing military offensive in northern Syria has created a "humanitarian crisis". The comments come as two camps on Turkey's border with Syria are overflowing with Syrian refugees fleeing the crackdown on protests. ...

SYRIA ARMY 'ENTERS NORTHERN TOWN'

BBC News - ‎2 hours ago‎
Syrian government forces have advanced into the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour, as part of a widespread government crackdown, reports say. Witnesses reported gunfire and and houses alight, as troops moved in after a 24-hour bombardment. ...

SYRIANS FLEE AS FORCES CONTINUE ASSAULT

Boston Globe - Liam Stack - ‎2 hours ago‎
Displaced Syrians streamed into Turkey, crowding into a refugee camp in Yayladagi. About 1000 Syrians have fled their country. (Osman Orsal/ Reuters) By Liam Stack CAIRO — Syrian security forces continued to bombard the restive northern town of Jisr ...

US: SYRIA CREATING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

Aljazeera.net - ‎2 hours ago‎
Global community calls on Damascus to grant relief agencies access to civilians caught up in security crackdown. The United States has accused the authorities in Syria of creating a humanitarian crisis by refusing to allow aid to be delivered in ...

'SYRIAN ARMY DEFECTORS TELL OF RAPE, INDISCRIMINATE MURDER'

Jerusalem Post - ‎3 hours ago‎
By JPOST.COM STAFF Army deserters who fled to Turkey reportedly claim Syrian soldiers "raped women in front of their husbands and children," said soldiers were ordered to shoot at unarmed civilians, Hezbollah men serving as regime snipers. ...

SYRIA 'CREATING REFUGEE CRISIS'

BBC News - ‎5 hours ago‎
The United States says an ongoing military offensive in northern Syria has created a "humanitarian crisis". White House officials have called on the Syrian government to end the use of violence against civilians and give aid agencies access to people ...

4300 FLEE SYRIA CRACKDOWN: TURKEY

Indian Express - ‎6 hours ago‎
GUVECCI: Foreign Ministry deputy undersecretary of Turkey, Halit Cevik said on Saturday 4300 Syrians, from the northern town of Jisr al-Shoughour, have fled to Turkey to escape a crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad, fearing revenge ...

AFTER ASSAD, DEMOCRACY IN SYRIA?

The Nation, Pakistan - Elliott Abrams - ‎6 hours ago‎
The bloody war that the Assad regime is waging against the people of Syria will end in the downfall of the regime. Whether that will take months or years is impossible to say; how many peaceful demonstrators and unarmed Syrians the regime will kill is ...

AP TOP NEWS AT 5:00 A.M. EDT

Newsday (subscription) - ‎7 hours ago‎
By AP Photo credit: AP | Syrian refugees seen in a camp set up by Turkish Red Crescent in the Turkish town of Yayladagi in Hatay province, Turkey, Friday, June 10, 2011. The Turkish region borders with Syria and said Wednesday it would open its border ...

SYRIAN TROOPS SEAL RESTIVE NORTHERN CITY

Newsday (subscription) - Zeina Karam - ‎7 hours ago‎
(AP) -- Syrian tanks sealed a restive northern city Saturday, and activists said they expected an all-out government assault on the region near the Turkish border. President Bashar Assad has sent heavy armor, ...

HOSTILE SYRIAN BORDER REGION CHALLENGES REGIME

Newsday (subscription) - Zeina Karam - ‎7 hours ago‎
(AP) -- A border region with a history of hostility toward the Syrian regime is posing the biggest challenge yet for President Bashar Assad's struggle to crush the revolt against his family's 40-year-rule. ...

SYRIANS FLEE HOMES

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎8 hours ago‎
Syrians fleeing President Bashar al-Assad's assault on northern towns resisting his regime tell stories of troops setting fields alight and opening fire at random, the chief of a Turkish village hosting refugees said. Mr Assad's violence against his ...

SYRIAN FORCES STORM TOWN NEAR BORDER -RESIDENTS

Reuters - Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Michael Roddy - ‎8 hours ago‎
AMMAN, June 12 (Reuters) - Syrian tanks stormed a border town overnight, residents said on Sunday, in the latest assault to crush a three-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that has driven thousands of refugees into Turkey. ...

US SLAMS 'HUMANITARIAN CRISIS' IN SYRIA

Inquirer.net - ‎9 hours ago‎
WASHINGTON—The United States on Saturday accused Syria of creating a “humanitarian crisis” with its fierce crackdown on protests and called on Damascus to allow access for medics. “The Syrian government's offensive in northern Syria has created a ...

SYRIAN TANKS SURROUND MUTINOUS NORTHERN CITY

CBC.ca - ‎9 hours ago‎
Syrians continued to stream into Turkey on Saturday to seek refuge amid their government's latest crackdown on dissent, which saw tanks and thousands of elite troops surround the restive but mostly abandoned northern city of Jisr al-Shughour. ...

SYRIAN REFUGEE TELLS HAARETZ: ASSAD REGIME KILLING SOLDIERS WHO REFUSE TO ...

Ha'aretz - Anshel Pfeffer - ‎9 hours ago‎
All he is willing to say is that his name is Moussa and that he comes from a village near Jisr al-Shoughour, where he arrived on Thursday to shop at the market. To prove that he was there, Moussa holds up his cell phone and plays a ...

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN ARAB POLITICAL UNREST STRETCHING FROM NORTH AFRICA TO ...

Washington Post - ‎10 hours ago‎
By AP, Thousands of elite troops and tanks believed to be led by President Bashar Assad's brother seal off the entrances to the mostly deserted town of Jisr al-Shughour, near the border with Turkey. Soldiers loyal to the regime come under sniper fire ...

THOUSANDS OF SYRIAN REFUGEES FLOOD INTO TURKEY

Pakistan Daily Times - ‎10 hours ago‎
ANTAKYA: Around 4600 Syrians have fled a brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protesters and are staying in camps in southern Turkey, a government official in Ankara told on Saturday. “The latest figure is 4600,” the official said. ...

AS SYRIANS FLEE TO TURKEY, SAUDIS STAY SILENT

NPR - ‎10 hours ago‎
by NPR Staff Enlarge AP Syrian refugees stand in a camp set up by the Turkish Red Crescent in Yayladagi, Turkey. AP Syrian refugees stand in a camp set up by the Turkish Red Crescent in Yayladagi, Turkey. Thousands of Syrians have fled to Turkey as ...

SYRIA PROTESTS CONTINUE AS REFUGEES STREAM INTO TURKEY

Al Jazeera - ‎10 hours ago‎
In Syria, the town of Jesr al Shugur has reportedly been sealed off ahead of an all-out military assault. The number of Syrians fleeing into Turkey to escape their government's crackdown on protests is on the rise. Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reports.

TANKS MASS ON EDGE OF SYRIAN TOWN

Washington Post - Liz Sly - ‎11 hours ago‎
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300 PROTEST SYRIAN REGIME IN CANADA

AFP - ‎11 hours ago‎
MONTREAL — Some three hundred demonstrators gathered in downtown Montreal Saturday to to call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Chanting "the people want an end to the regime" and, in Arabic, "God, Syria, freedom is all we want," the ...

SYRIAN TROOPS SEAL RESTIVE NORTHERN CITY

TODAYonline - ‎11 hours ago‎
BEIRUT - Syrian tanks sealed a restive northern city yesterday, and activists said they expected an all-out government assault on the region near the Turkish border. President Bashar Assad has sent heavy armour, including tanks, and thousands of troops ...

US SLAMS 'HUMANITARIAN CRISIS' IN SYRIA

AFP - ‎12 hours ago‎
WASHINGTON — The United States on Saturday accused Syria of creating a "humanitarian crisis" with its fierce crackdown on protests and called on Damascus to allow access for medics. The remarks came after Syrian forces backed by helicopters killed at ...

US ACCUSES SYRIA OF CREATING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

Jerusalem Post - ‎12 hours ago‎
By REUTERS WASHINGTON - The White House on Saturday accused the Syrian government of creating a humanitarian crisis and urged it to halt its crackdown and civilians and give the Red Cross immediate, unfettered access to the country's northern region. ...

SYRIAN FORCES SEAL OFF JISR AL-SHUGHOUR

CBS News - ‎12 hours ago‎
In this photo taken during a government-organized visit for media, a Syrian army tank and military truck are seen crossing the bridge of the al-Assi river, near the town of Jisr al-Shughour, Syria, Friday June 10, 2011. Elite Syrian forces moved ...

SYRIAN FORCES ATTACK DEMONSTRATORS NEAR TURKISH BORDER

Voice of America - Edward Yeranian - ‎13 hours ago‎
Photo: AP Mourners across Syria laid to rest the bodies of dozens of people killed when government forces fired on anti-government demonstrators, and military units are continuing their crackdown against the town of Jisr al-Shughour, near the Turkish ...

TURKEY CONDEMNS VIOLENCE AS ASSAD'S HELICOPTERS OPEN FIRE

Telegraph.co.uk - ‎13 hours ago‎
Syria's former ally Turkey cut off the regime of President Bashar al-Assad as his tanks crashed into a key northern city and shelled rebel villages, killing more than 28 people. Reports in Ankara said Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ...

ASSAD'S TANKS MOVE IN ON SYRIA'S EXODUS TOWN AS THOUSANDS FLEE, COWS AND ...

Telegraph.co.uk - Colin Freeman - ‎13 hours ago‎
Diplomats said they feared civil war as Syria sent in 15000 troops backed by tanks for "surgical operation" on Jisr al-Shughour. By Colin Freeman, in Guvecci His brow sweating from the climb up the donkey track, Ibrahim Dou pointed down the mountain ...

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Saturday, June 11, 2011

DTN News - UAE DEFENSE NEWS: Bigger Than Blackwater ~ Arming The UAE

Defense News: DTN News - UAE DEFENSE NEWS: Bigger Than Blackwater ~ Arming The UAE
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 11, 2011:
The International Defense Exhibition, otherwise known as IDEX, has been held bi-annually in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 1993. It is the largest defense expo in the Middle East and North Africa and one of the biggest in the world. But far from being a one-off, it highlights the UAE’s growing stature as a global arms buyer.

This year’s IDEX took place in the glistening Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center. Its high ceilings and massive rooms displayed a diverse array of high-tech weaponry against the backdrop of heavily illuminated signboards like the ones you see in the showrooms of luxury car dealerships. All the big Western defense corporations were there — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Dyncorp, Northrup Grumman, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. — as well as Chinese companies, including China North. There were also a host of local companies including Arabian Aerospace, Abu Dhabi Ship Building Company, and the state-owned Mubadala. Like all of these events, it was a heavily male enterprise. The exhibitors wore suits. The visitors wore either the military uniform of the UAE or traditional Arab dress.

The most advanced F-16s in the world are not American. That distinction belongs to the United Arab Emirates, whose F-16 E/F Block 60s are a half-generation ahead of the F-16 C/D Block 50/52+ aircraft that form the backbone of the US Air Force, and of many other fleets around the world. The Block 60 has been described as a lower-budget alternative to the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter – and has been treated as such in countries like India and the Netherlands, as they contemplate their future fighter needs

Outside, the expo began with a parade and air show, and representatives from BAE Systems gave passersby a tour of the latest features of their all-terrain tank. Just inside the entry hall, visitors could check out a parked yellow Hummer on their way to the exhibits. At the U.S. pavilion, a representative from Boeing demonstrated the features of its integrated defense simulator, and General Dynamics showed off its latest MK- 47 machine gun. At the Lockheed Martin exhibit, you could get within inches of anti-aircraft missiles propped on plastic risers like pieces of modernist art — so shiny you could see your reflection in them.

This lavish exhibition occurred a full three months before The New York Timesbroke the story that former Blackwater/Xe founder Erik Prince had struck a secret deal worth $529 million with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, to form a mercenary army for the UAE. According to reports cited in the story, the force will be used to protect oil pipelines and skyscrapers against terrorist attacks and suppress internal uprisings of the large population of migrant workers living in the country — as well as potentially engaging Iran, long the UAE’s biggest regional foe.

Coverage so far has centered on Prince and his notorious company. But the full story of the UAE’s employment of foreign companies to build up its military and defense goes well beyond Blackwater/Xe and includes a virtual who’s who of Western defense companies.

A Brief History of the UAE Military

The UAE we know today is a relatively new entity. For most of the last two centuries Britain provided security in the region in exchange for lucrative trading deals and control of the sheikhs’ relations with other foreign powers. Security was handed over to the UAE in 1971, when the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and four other emirates agreed to form a federal union.

Although the UAE’s military, known as the Union Defense Force (UDF), is technologically advanced, it is relatively small in numbers. In many armies, the vast underclass typically fills the rank and file. But in the UAE, this social group is made up almost entirely of non-citizens — migrant workers who build the roads, skyscrapers, and golf courses where the oil titans and Branjelinas of the world like to play. There are currently about 65,000 members serving in the UDF. Though most of the officers are UAE nationals, most of the foot soldiers are mercenaries from other Arab states and Pakistan.

In recent years the UAE has made massive military and defense investments in an effort to rebuff Iran, become a dominant military player in the region, and diversify its oil-dependent economy. Recruiting ever more foreign soldiers — like the Colombian paramilitaries who will be part of Prince’s mercenary outfit — is a key part of this endeavor. Purchasing ever larger amounts of the best high-tech weaponry is perhaps an even more important part. In 2009, the UAE was the biggest foreign purchaser of U.S. arms. In October 2010, it invited 50 U.S.-based defense companies to visit and see the opportunities for growth first-hand.

Who’s Profiting from the UAE Arms Proliferation?

The UAE’s long-term plan is to build its own defense industry into a major international player. In accordance with this plan,75 percent of the contracts at IDEX went to local firms, including Emirate Systems, which got a $550 million deal to coordinate military intelligence and communicate military operations down the chain of command. Another major deal involved the Abu Dhabi-based Bayanat Company, which obtained a contract to provide aerial surveillance within the UAE.

As with most aspects of the UAE economy, Western businesses have an integral and profitable role to play in this endeavor. They work as “partners” with the local companies. Typically, this means they provide the expertise, training, and equipment, while the UAE government provides the money. The state-owned Mubadala Development Company, which has seengrowing profits in recent years, does business with all the biggest Western contractors.

All parties involved are careful about how they publicly frame these partnerships. The UAE works hard to brand such endeavors with the proper Arabian stamp. To this end, an official video of the UAE armed forces posted on YouTube shows shirtless Arab sailors with turbans rowing apace with a massive battleship, men in long white robes and head scarves riding vigorously atop Arabian horses alongside tanks in the desert, and real-live falcons flying next to F-16 Fighting Falcon planes. Okay, we get it. Modern killing technology meets the elegant tradition of the Arabian warrior. This is the best of both worlds, a potent (pun intended) mixture of Western and Arabian warrior traditions.

The Western defense industries are equally careful to stem potential accusations that they have sold out to foreign Muslims who might one day turn their backs on us and join the global jihad. In the United States, industry reps couch their connections with the UAE in the all-American lingo of good business ethics. The spokesperson for the National Defense Industries Association (NDIA), the industry’s most influential lobbying arm, explained that the UAE firms “profess similar values as U.S. industry. They all emphasize integrity, service, commitment and excellence.”

They also share the value of making money. A brief sampling of recent contracts gives an idea of just how much money is at stake in the growth of the UAE’s military apparatus:

Who Loses Out?

The rapid expansion of the UAE military has the tacit support, if not outright blessing, of the U.S. government. In response to the news that Blackwater had struck a deal with the UAE, an Obama administration official was quoted as saying, “The gulf countries, and the UAE in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help…They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.” The Defense Department recently announced reforms that will make it easier for domestic defense companies to export their products to foreign buyers.

There are at least two reasons for the administration’s position. First and foremost, it regards the UAE as one of its most important allies in the region. The Emirates supported both Iraq Wars, and it currently is involved in cracking down on the protest movement in Bahrain — it sent 500 police officers to suppress the revolt in the tiny Gulf kingdom. In the midst of the crackdown, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed was welcomed by the White House with open arms.

Support for exporting U.S. arms to the UAE is also part of a larger move to accommodate the defense industry, which has repeatedly voiced concern about the threat of a shrinking defense budget, although the supposed 78 billion dollars in cutsrepresent little more than a cap on future growth and a reshuffling of the current budget.

In this broader context of both the U.S. willingness to provide arms for Gulf allies and the ongoing budget wars in the United States, direct contracts between the defense industry and the UAE appear to be a win-win situation for everyone — everyone, that is, except the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and critics of the UAE regime who will be among the targets of the military’s beefed-up surveillance systems and the mercenary’s guns.

It is telling that the UAE government would rather hire mercenaries to suppress potential rebellions than improve theconditions of these workers, who are systemically abused by their bosses and forced to live in cramped slums with little or no access to basic infrastructure and services. In recent months, the UAE has arrested and jailed at least five democracy activistsas well as disbanded the board of directors for the National Jurists Association and the Teacher’s Association, two of the country’s most eminent civil society organizations and supporters of democratic reform. The UAE’s enhanced military apparatus will likely suppress any potential protest movement that might develop as part of the Arab Spring.

The enhanced ties between the United States and the UAE raise important questions about who is actually responsible for the actions of the Emirati military. Currently, neither the U.S. government nor the defense industry has spoken out against the government’s crackdown. It would be delusional not to acknowledge the U.S. role in the UAE’s human rights abuses. If and when an atrocity is committed against the migrant workers and democracy activists by the UAE military, Erik Prince and the UAE government won’t be the only ones to blame.


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DTN News - TURKISH DEFENSE NEWS: Turkish PM Focuses On Defense Industry In Poll Campaign

Defense News: DTN News - TURKISH DEFENSE NEWS: Turkish PM Focuses On Defense Industry In Poll Campaign
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada / ANKARA, Turkey - June 11, 2011:
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, is putting an unprecedented emphasis on the defense industry in its campaign for the June 12 elections. The party's promises focus on establishing and developing a domestic industry that comes near to being self-sufficient. PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says the capital city of Ankara will become the headquarters of the sector.

Visions for the defense industry have not played a key role in election campaigns by either a ruling or opposition party ahead of previous Turkish polls. But this year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been holding up Turkey’s developing national defense industry as one of the pillars of a modern economy in the 2020s.

In the weeks leading up to the nationwide parliamentary election that will be held June 12, Erdoğan had made three major speeches on the national defense industry.

Explaining his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP’s, election manifesto in late April, Erdoğan pledged that Turkey’s local defense companies would manufacture indigenous “tanks, helicopters, war planes, unmanned aerial vehicles and military satellites in the next 12 years.”

The prime minister has vigorously set out a national strategy to maximize local production in Turkey’s defense programs, aiming at what he calls “near self-sufficiency.” In recent years, Turkey has practically suspended off-the-shelf purchase options, restructuring programs into local development or coproduction.

As it seeks re-election for a third term in power, the incumbent AKP government is also ambitiously planning to make Ankara, the country’s capital, into a “global defense industry base.”

In a televised speech May 25, Erdoğan said new investments would make Ankara a global defense and aerospace center catering to both local and international companies.

“Turkey’s defense industry capital is Ankara,” Erdoğan reiterated in a May 29 speech. He said local companies are targeting $8 billion in sales by 2016, $6 billion of which will come from companies based in Ankara. Two major planned investments will serve the prime minister’s goal, according to defense industry officials.

The first involves the Ankara-based powerhouse Turkish Aerospace Industries, or TAI, which already has pushed the button to build a $100 million Satellite Assembly, Integration and Test Center, or UMET.

TAI’s general manager, Muharrem Dörtkaşlı, said UMET would become operational by the end of 2012. “This will be a place where final assembly of both military and civilian satellites will be carried out with state-of-the-art technology. Also, the planned center will conduct series of tests with full space-simulation capability before satellites are launched,” Dörtkaşlı said.

Making, testing satellites

According to Erdoğan, a total of 120 engineers will be employed at the facility, where two satellites will be able to go through simultaneous production and testing. “First, we will assemble and test the Göktürk [military] satellite at the new plant,” Dörtkaşlı said.

Telespazio, a joint venture between Italy’s defense giant Finmeccanica and France’s Thales, signed a nearly 250 million-euro deal a couple of years ago to lead the effort for the Turkish military satellite. Finmeccanica has a 67 percent stake in Telespazio.

TAI was created in the late 1980s to carry out partial production and assembly of the F-16 fighter aircraft, made by the U.S. firm Lockheed Martin. In its early years, it also assembled the Spanish-made CN-235 light transport aircraft and some utility helicopters.

Now it is the prime contractor in building 60 T-129 attack helicopters developed by the Italian AgustaWestland for the Turkish Army. It also has been selected as prime contractor in Turkey’s coproduction of at least 109 T-70 utility helicopters, Turkish versions of the U.S. firm Sikorsky Aircraft’s S-70i Black Hawk International. TAI also is coproducing the KT-1 basic trainer aircraft with South Korea, developing its own basic trainer aircraft and is building Turkey’s first medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, the Anka.

The second investment plan is for the building of a Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems center in Gölbaşı, near Ankara. The center will be built and operated by Aselsan, Turkey’s biggest defense company and a military electronics specialist.

Aselsan, also based in the capital, last year obtained a 192.5 million Turkish Liras ($130 million) investment incentive from the Treasury for the new center. Industry sources said the total cost for building the new plant would be around $200 million.

They said Aselsan plans to start production at the planned facility in 2013. Principal tasks will be the research, development, design and production of air defense radars, land radars, signal interceptors, jammers, microwave modules and various pieces of electronic warfare equipment.

Aselsan plans to transfer the 700 employees currently active at its Macunköy, Ankara, plant to the new site. There will be additional 400 engineering positions available.



Hürriyet Daily News
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