ANKARA — Turkey’s largest ever single naval contract, a US $3.5 billion deal with a German shipyard for the co-production of six submarines, is facing major delays and disputes over modality, Turkish officials and industry sources said.
“We are in talks with our German partners to iron out differences and put the program back on track,” a senior procurement official familiar with the program said.
The official admitted the program is facing delays, but declined to comment on the reasons behind them.
In 2009, the Turkish government sealed the deal with Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, based in Kiel, to co-produce six U 214-type diesel submarines for the Turkish Navy. The subs would be manufactured at a naval shipyard in Golcuk, northwestern Turkey.
Another procurement official said “a set of setbacks” has delayed the program but did not elaborate, other than citing “technical reasons.” “I do not think the program can meet the original timetable,” he said.
A spokesman for HDW was unavailable for comment as of press time.
Production was to start in 2011, and the first sub delivered in 2015.
There has been speculation in Ankara that the Turkish government was unable to cancel the contract due to delays or impose sanctions on the German shipyard because it felt threatened by years of German eavesdropping on Turkey’s top officials.
In August, the German newspaper Der Spiegel cited a confidential German intelligence document that revealed Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service had spied on Turkey since 2009.
There were no details on the scale of wiretapping, but in August the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the allegations were “worrisome.” It summoned the German ambassador to Ankara, Eberhard Pohl, for an explanation. Berlin since then has not officially denied the allegations.
“[Accusations of] blackmailing between us the allies is pure fantasy,” a German diplomat in Ankara said. “We are working hard to make sure the submarine program progresses and ends as planned.”
A Turkish diplomat denied Ankara was being blackmailed by Berlin in a “submarine delays vs. tapes” deal. “That’s a particularly bad conspiracy theory,” he said.
But one senior industry source, a specialist in naval contracts, said: “I wouldn’t be so sure about comfortably waving off the claims.” He did not comment further.
After Turkey selected HDW and its Britain-based partner, Marine Force International LLP, contract negotiations saw tough bargaining over price, local content and the integration of some Turkish systems on the submarines. HDW had defeated France’s DCNS and Spain’s Navantia.
In 2011, a team of Turkish and German companies, supported by Turkey’s procurement office, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, sought unsuccessfully to sell two HDW-built U 209-type diesel submarines to Indonesia in a $1 billion deal. The Turkish team was competing with South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine.
Turkey earlier built 14 U 209-type submarines with the German company. ■
Deanne Corbett in Berlin contributed to this report.