ANKARA-- Turkey’s procurement office, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), is preparing to open bidding for the acquisition of cable-guided balloons – also called mini-zeppelins – for reconnaissance, surveillance, target tracking, communications relay and intelligence functions.



Officials familiar with the program said that the planned balloons, expected to be operated mainly in the insurgency-hit southeast region, should be functioning at an altitude of 4 to 10 kilometers.



They said the bidding would be for local contenders only. But, one official said, local bidders would be allowed to obtain technology transfer and know-how from foreign manufacturers.



The balloons are expected to function like Lockheed Martin’s Persistent Threat Detection System, a tethered aerostat-based system in use by the U.S. Army since 2004. The PTDS is equipped with multimission sensors to provide long endurance intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications, and was in support of coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.



Turkey’s military-electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey’s largest defense company, has been developing two different types of balloons.



Aselsan, a potential bidder, is hoping to develop the "Water Drop" and the "Global" to detect terrorist activity and illegal crossings along Turkey’s borders with Syria and Iraq.



