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Turkish army to return three Aerostar drones to Israel: Report

04 November 2012 02:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Turkish military plans to return three tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Israel due to their poor performance in the campaign against members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), APA reports quoting Press TV.

â€œThe contract is at a stage of cancellation,â€ Turkish-language Hurriyet newspaper quoted a procurement official as saying on condition of anonymity on Saturday.

He added that the UAVs that will be returned to their original Israeli maker, Yavne-based Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd., are Aerostar drones, and not medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) Heron UAVs.

The Aerostars are designed to fill the gap between short-range and MALE drones, and are smaller than Herons.

Israel became one of Turkeyâ€™s top arms suppliers in the mid-1990s. The Jewish entity agreed to deliver 10 Heron UAVs to the Turkish government under a contract sealed in 2005.

However, the production of Herons for Turkey was delayed, prompting the Turkish army to lease the three Aerostars in 2007 for nearly $10 million.

Turkey later purchased the three Aerostars outright for $30 million as a stop-gap solution until it received the Herons. All 10 Herons were delivered to Turkey by 2010.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.