Koç’s firm wins tender to produce armored vehicles

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Otokar, a subsidiary of Turkey’s Koç Holding, announced yesterday that it had won a 227.9 million-Turkish Lira ($114 billion) tender to produce the Cobra, a 4X4 armored tactical wheeled vehicle used for reconnaissance and area control purposes by Turkish security forces.

In a written statement to the Public Disclosure Platform, the company said the first vehicle deliveries would begin this year and be completed by 2015.

Earlier this year the Turkish Armed Forces terminated a contract with Turkish armored vehicle producer BMC for the acquisition of 468 Kirpi vehicles, or ambush-protected armored vehicles (MRAPs).

Levent Şenel, the head of the Defense Industry Undersecretariat’s (SSM) land vehicles department, said in March that if BMC did not solve its problems, the order would have to be procured from somewhere else. Şenel suggested Otokar and FNNS could also develop the vehicle.