Turkey, Pakistan ink deals on warships, trainer aircraft

Istanbul May 10 (IANS) Turkey and Pakistan on Wednesday agreed to buy each other s warships and training planes.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by the defence ministers of the two countries Turkey will deliver four Island-class corvettes developed under the country s national warship programme to Pakistani naval forces.

Pakistan will hand over 52 Super Mushshak training planes to Turkey under another deal.

The final agreement was planned to be signed in Pakistan on June 30 and expected to be Turkish republic s biggest defense industry export project in its history the Turkish Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) announced on its website.

The deals were inked at the ongoing 13th International Defence Industry Fair in Istanbul.

The Pakistani planes are going to replace T-41 and SF-260 planes currently in use and with this project a Nato member country for the first time in history will include Super Mushshak planes into its inventory and will use it for training activities an SSM statement said.

--IANS
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