ANKARA (AP) – Italy’s Agusta Aerospace yesterday won a Turkish tender worth –2.1 billion to co-produce attack helicopters, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul announced.

The contract is for the co-production of 30 helicopters with an option for 20 more. Denel of South Africa, the only other company which was shortlisted, was eliminated from the race. Franco-German company Eurocopter and Kamov of Russia were eliminated earlier.

For the first time, no US bidders participated because of strict rules which included full access to the aircraft’s specific software codes – which the US considers a security risk – and a written guarantee from the provider’s government that there will be no political obstacles to the export of the arms.

Turkey imposed new bidding rules in 2005, after it canceled a previous tender in 2004 when a deal for US firm Bell Helicopter Textron’s King Cobra, a Turkish version of the AH-1Z Super Cobra used by US Marines, collapsed over price, technology transfer and licensing problems.

Turkey went through a low point in defense relations with Washington following its refusal to host US troops for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It has actively sought out other potential arms suppliers, making Turkey’s business less attractive for US companies which for more than 50 years have been the main arms suppliers to Turkey, a lynchpin of NATO’s southern flank during the Cold War.

The new rules also empower Turkey, which is keen to gain control of its military technology, to substitute alternative, probably locally manufactured components such as weapon systems, the mission computer, avionics and electronic warfare suites, and require the supplier to integrate other systems or equipment built by Turkish companies.

Turkey’s concerns over technological control of its weaponry increased after it faced arms blockades from several countries because of human rights problems in its fight against autonomy-seeking Kurdish guerrillas, while Washington demanded Turkish progress on human rights as a condition for arms sales. Turkey wants a sovereign helicopter to use freely, mainly against Kurdish guerrillas in the rugged southeast, without taking on the risk of outside interference in the aircraft’s mission computer or of political obstacles from Washington.