The news is already a couple of days old but was not a topic yet
Russian aircraft maker Kamov said on Tuesday it was on track to supply 145 of its Ka-50-2 combat helicopters to Turkey over six years. "We have practically initialled the contract with Turkey and we will finalise it by the end of 2003," Sergei Mikheev, the company’s chief designer, told reporters. He did not say how much the contract was worth. Military analysts put the price of one Ka-50-2 at between $12 million and $15 million. Turkey, a NATO member, chose Kamov over its U.S. competitor, the Bell Helicopter division of Textron Inc.
This sounds good, though I am not sure whether or not the Kamov is superb to the king cobra helicopter
"It did not suit Turkey that the Americans insisted on supplying fully completed helicopters without any Turkish role in building them," Mikheev said. "Under our deal Turkish companies will be involved in work on the cockpit."
I’d say shove aside the dependency on American technology, start creating diversity and have more of our own technology involved like the Israelis do
Israel, which cooperates with Kamov on avionics, will also take part in the Russian-Turkish consortium.
| My feelings aren't hurt. On the whole, U.S. military equipment has out-classed Russian equivalents for at least 30 years, though at the individual equipment level they occasionally make just as good a product (see debate, AK versus M16). The philosophies of design and manufacture have been different, with the U.S. going for top performance, the Russians going for a simpler approach to ease maintenance. Depends on what the Turkish military needs, on the criticality of the need, and on how much they need to involve local industry... |
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