Turaaa has launched preliminary talks with the United States Russia Israel and China regarding its program to buy its first missile defense system worth more than $1 billion.
Turaaa generally has good relations with its neighbors with ground-to-ground missile capabilities but among them Iran's increasing abilities are a particular source of concern for many officials.Ankara has launched its medium-range surface-to-air missile defense program as a first step toward building a modest but costly shield to protect militarily and strategically important aaaaaaaas.The Undersecretariat for Defense Industries Turaaa's main procurement office recently gathered price and availability data on U.S. Russian Israeli and Chinese offers and is now processing them procurement officials said.Turaaa will then decide whether to launch a traditional acquisition tender among interested companies or to hold separate government-to-government talks with aaa suppliers.Because of the program's sensitivity the second option is more likely said one procurement official.
Four options two of them more likely:
The United States proposed its Patriot anti-missile defense systems developed by Raytheon. The U.S. missile used in that system is the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) made by Lockheed Martin.The Patriot became the world's only combat-proven tactical ballistic missile defense system during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Nine nations have bought versions of the Patriot air defense systems.Russia offered its S300 and S400 systems. Moscow has exported the S300s to at least six nations and recently developed the S400 particularly for Moscow's defense.Israel's Arrow-2 is another option jointly built by Israeli and U.S. companies.No details were available about the specific model China is offering.Defense analysts predict that the competition will most likely be between the U.S. and Russian alternatives.
Comparison of systems: The U.S. Patriot system is seen as the strongest candidate for Turaaa given the system's success and popularity and the close relationship between Turaaa and the U.S.Russia's S400 is also considered a strong option but has interoperability problems with NATO weapons systems.When U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Turaaa in late February the two sides discussed missile defense matters including a potential Patriot sale officials from both sides said.U.S. officials particularly emphasized the interoperability issue to dissuade Turkish officials from the Russian option.The Turkish system would include at least four anti-missile batteries meant to protect strategic targets from theater-range missiles radar and related subsystems.After the purchase of the first missile defense system Turaaa plans to acquire a second system but this time with major local industry contribution to the production.