ASIMOV
October 11th, 2005, 05:44 PM
When I was at Ataturk Airport (I'm in Milan right now) the guy behind me at the boarding line of the plane asked me if I'm also part of the ATAK team.
I said "No" and immediately asked him:
"Is Turkey interested in A-129 International?"
The guy (who turned out to be from SSM) said "It's in our short list."
I asked "wasn't the A-129 International regarded as too light for Turkey's needs?"
He said "not anymore, the Italians recently introduced an upgraded version for our needs"
Then I asked "which are the other contenders?"
He said "King Cobra completely lost its chance. Apache Longbow is seriously considered, but it's more expensive than others. Kamov Erdogan also has no chance, but if the Russians offer us "Mi" then we can consider. Right now A-129 is strong because Italians will share full technology and let us install our own mission computers and build the choppers in Turkey"
I said "No" and immediately asked him:
"Is Turkey interested in A-129 International?"
The guy (who turned out to be from SSM) said "It's in our short list."
I asked "wasn't the A-129 International regarded as too light for Turkey's needs?"
He said "not anymore, the Italians recently introduced an upgraded version for our needs"
Then I asked "which are the other contenders?"
He said "King Cobra completely lost its chance. Apache Longbow is seriously considered, but it's more expensive than others. Kamov Erdogan also has no chance, but if the Russians offer us "Mi" then we can consider. Right now A-129 is strong because Italians will share full technology and let us install our own mission computers and build the choppers in Turkey"