Following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s complaint last week that Israel delayed the delivery of Herons that Turkey sent to the country for maintenance, a new report revealed that Turkey has been dealing with Israel on maintenance issues for a long time. Ankara purchased three Aerostars from Israeli company Aeronautics in 2008. Aerostars, which are be able reach an altitude of 18,000 feet (5,486 meters) and travel up to 100 kilometers per hour, are also able to relay images to a command center 200 kilometers away. However, all three Aerostars crashed during operations, which rendered them unusable.
As for Heron drones, Turkey purchased ten 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 UAS purchased from Israel, the country last year unveiled its own UAS, ANKA, a surveillance aircraft able to fly 24 hours at a time. However, ANKA is not expected to fly until 2012.
Source: Today’s Zaman
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