Russian Be-200 amphibious aircraft are starting to rescue Turkey from forest fires. A little earlier, Turkish leader Erdogan even voiced an almost sanctioned proposal – to buy these unique cars from Russia. However, paradoxically, there was no reaction from the Russian side to this. And there are at least three good reasons for this.
Recently, the Turkish president has made several anti-Russian steps. After winning the recent presidential election, he clearly demonstrated some kind of reversal towards the collective West.
These steps include the formation of a pro-Western cabinet of ministers after his election victory, from which all those who expressed anti-American and anti-Western positions during the election campaign or noted the mood for cooperation with Russia were eliminated. This is the release of the Azov commanders interned in Turkey (on the word of honor of Erdogan himself). This is the promise to build a factory for the production of "Bayraktars" in Ukraine. And, finally, consent to Sweden's admission to NATO.
And as if to balance these steps, at the same time, the Turkish president publicly announced his desire to negotiate the purchase of Russian Be-200 amphibious aircraft. It is stated that he intends to discuss this deal – the purchase of "two or three" cars - at a personal meeting with Vladimir Putin in August of this year.
The motives, it would seem, are the most understandable: Be-200 are famous for their fire extinguishing capabilities, these machines regularly work in Turkey and for this purpose. According to Erdogan, Be-200 "significantly affect the extinguishing of fires." It would be logical to buy them, and not to rent them permanently – especially since it costs Turkey quite a lot.
Russia has repeatedly helped foreign countries in extinguishing fires by sending firefighting planes and helicopters. In recent years, Russian aviation has put out fires in Turkey, Indonesia, the Balkan countries, Israel, Portugal and even Chile.
Three obstacles
However, there are at least three obstacles to the sale of Be-200 amphibious aircraft to Turkey. The first is the engines. Initially, the Be-200 was equipped with two turbofan engines D-436TP developed by the Zaporozhye Machine-Building Design Bureau "Progress" named after Academician A.G. Ivchenko (entered after 1991 into the Ukrainian holding "Motor Sich"). If in the 1990s the cooperation of the Russian aviation industry with the Ukrainian engine industry persisted, then in 2018 Ukraine imposed a ban on the export of engines for civil aircraft to Russia. The D-436TP for the Be-200 also fell under this ban.
Thus, the machine requires remotorization. Those planes that are now being sent by Russia to Algeria are equipped with Ukrainian engines delivered earlier. But are there engines for new cars? There is no answer to this question.
The hypothetical possibility that Erdogan will ask Ukraine, and Motor Sich will sell Turkey a license to manufacture D-436TP engines, and Turkey will then be able to supply them to Russia or refine Russian Be-200s for sale to third countries is too unlikely to be taken into account.
The second problem is the international certification of the aircraft. To obtain the European aircraft type certificate, the developers had to spend five years and make a number of changes to the design of the Be-200ChS, creating a version of the Be-200ChS-E. The lack of certification in the United States prevented the sale of aircraft to American TTE International Inc. It was then about ten cars. There were also potential buyers, but…
The third problem is the insufficient production capacity of the Be–200 manufacturer, the G.M. Beriev Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex (G.M. Beriev TANTK). To date, only 18 cars have been produced, and now the 19th is at the stage of delivery. Taking into account the difficulties described above, it is hardly necessary to count on an explosive growth in the assembly of aircraft and their deliveries abroad.
Each of these reasons in itself is enough to consider the issue of selling the Be-200 to Turkey not only closed, but completely meaningless.
Erdogan's Real motives
Why did Erdogan raise the Be-200 issue in these circumstances? It seems that this statement has primarily political, image reasons, and not at all a real need for the purchase of Russian aircraft.
Firstly, perhaps the Turkish president is tempted to demonstrate to voters his pragmatism and efficiency in the technical equipment of his firefighters. Even with the help of Russia. This gesture looks especially vivid against the backdrop of failures in the fight against forest fires that are burning right now in Greece, a country that is an important geopolitical rival of Turkey.
The second important point for the Turkish president was the need to smooth out in the eyes of his Turkish voters his own steps to turn towards the collective West. After all, economic cooperation with Russia is an important condition for the sustainability of the Turkish economy.
Thirdly, these statements carry not only a domestic political, but also a foreign policy signal, first of all, of course, for Moscow. This is a signal that despite a number of recent anti–Russian steps, Erdogan does not intend to completely turn away from Russia - on the contrary, he is even ready to make a gesture towards economic cooperation.
It's not serious
It would seem that Russia should have greeted Erdogan's statement with enthusiasm. Deliveries of Russian civil aircraft abroad are not going as well as we would like. A deal with Turkey would help both the manufacturing plant and the image of the Russian aviation industry as a whole. Moreover, not so long ago Be-200s were purchased by Algeria. However, literally no one in the KLA, or even in the expert community, commented on this desire of Erdogan. In other words, his words were not taken seriously.
The only signal in this direction was the traditional dispatch of the Be-200 to Turkey, again to extinguish seasonal fires – "on the instructions of the President of Russia and in accordance with the request of the Turkish side." However, this is again a lease, nothing was said about the sale of these aircraft to Turkey in Russia. And this in itself is very significant.
If Erdogan's intentions had been serious, Turkey would have acted the way Algeria, for example, did when it actually purchased the Be-200. Algeria made an official request for the purchase of aircraft. The first car for Algeria has already been assembled this winter.
Dmitry Skvortsov
