Boeing and Turkey Sign $1 Billion Contract for Airborne Early Warning & Control System
The Undersecretariat for Defense Industries of the Republic of Turkey has signed a $1 billion-plus contract with The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] for the design and development of a state-of-the-art 737 Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) system also being developed for Australia.
The international Boeing-led team responsible for the program includes Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems and several major Turkish companies including TAI and Havelsan. The contract calls for four 737 AEW&C aircraft plus a ground support segment for mission crew training, mission support and system maintenance support.
"This contract is another vote of confidence in the 737 AEW&C system and firmly establishes our new product line. The Boeing-led team looks forward to developing and delivering these four systems to Turkey," said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Space and Communications (S&C), a business unit of The Boeing Company headquartered in Chicago.
"This is an exciting opportunity for Boeing to build on its legacy of airborne early warning & control", said Patrick Gill, Boeing vice president of 737 AEW&C programs.
"The 737 AEW&C system offers Turkey outstanding capability and reliability. We look forward to working with our Turkish partners as they bring tremendous know-how and experience that will help us meet Turkey's requirements".
The U.S State Department and Congress must now approve the contract, which could take several months. Following that, efforts will focus on the design for the radar, communications systems and the aircraft subsystem. A contract for Australia's Project Wedgetail, was signed in December 2000 for four 737 AEW&C systems. Their design and development reached a critical milestone last month clearing the way for building the systems' components.
The Boeing AEW&C system combines the high-performance 737-700 increased gross weight aircraft with Northrop Grumman's Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar with integrated identification friend or foe capabilities. The Turkey 737 AEW&C airborne system contains a mission computing subsystem featuring a flexible, open-system architecture, and includes a Turkish-built electronic support measures subsystem and an extensive communications suite.
Boeing Space and Communications (S&C) headquartered in Seal Beach, Calif., is the world's largest space and communications company. A unit of The Boeing Company, S&C provides integrated solutions in launch services, human space flight and exploration, missile defense, and information and communications. It is NASA's largest contractor; a leading provider of space-based communications; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile defense; and a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The global enterprise has customers worldwide and manufacturing operations throughout the United States and Australia.
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