Dec 29 2020 03:50 Gmt+3
Last Updated On: Dec 29 2020 03:52 Gmt+3
Turkey’s military procurement agency will lead a project to develop a lightweight torpedo to replace two U.S.-made ones, India-based DefenseWorld.net reported on Monday.
The project will eliminate Turkey’s external dependence on lightweight torpedoes, it said.
İsmail Demir, head of the Presidency of Defence Industries, announced the project to develop the Orka torpedo in a Twitter post on Sunday.
The torpedo will be designed and manufactured by defence contractor Roketsan and subcontracted by ASELSAN, a Turkish defence giant, DefenseWorld said.
Roketsan said that the development project was launched to ensure the safety of the Blue Homeland, according to DefenseWorld.net. The “Blue Homeland” is a Turkish naval expansion doctrine which lays claim to wide-ranging territorial waters in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas – resulting in a series of territorial violations with Greece.
Last Updated On: Dec 25 2020 01:23 Gmt+3
Turkey’s relationships with the West are set for a complicated start in the new year.
On December 11, the European Union announced that it would be expanding its list of Turkish officials and entities subject to sanctions for Turkey’s drilling activities in waters off the coast of member states Greece and Cyprus. There were no new names mentioned at the time of the announcement.
The following week kicked off with a second sanctions announcement from across the Atlantic. On December 14, the United States declared it would be sanctioning the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) head Ismail Demir and several other executives for the purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia.
Dec 17 2020 03:01 Gmt+3
Last Updated On: Dec 17 2020 03:02 Gmt+3
Turkey should stop drifting away from NATO and become a member of good standing or face additional sanctions by the United States, said Bradley Bowman and Aykan Erdemir of the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
Turkey used to be a pro-Western bulwark on NATO’s south eastern flank, but under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan it has drifted towards Russia, and increasingly undermined regional stability and the interests of both the United States and NATO, Bowman and Erdemir said in an analysis on Wednesday.
Sanctions imposed on the country by the United States on Monday have targeted the nation’s defence procurement agency, the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB). President Donald Trump approved the measures under congressional pressure after Erdoğan acquired S-400 air defence missiles from Russia last year and began testing them.