Americas

Home page

Americas

Turkish selection of Chinese missile system angers US

28 September 2013 01:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. NATO member Turkey's selection of a Chinese missile system for its long-term, long-range missile and aerial defense program, code-named T-Loramids, has highly irritated and frustrated the US, which has been advising Ankara not to opt for a non-NATO missile system that it said would cause interoperability problems, APA reports quoting Today’s Zaman.

“The US is very, very unhappy about Turkey's selection of China [as their provider]. US President Barack Obama has twice taken up the missile issue with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan during their face-to-face meetings and reminded the Turkish prime minister about the interoperability problems that … a non-NATO system will create,” said a defense industry source in Ankara, quoting the US sources.

The result of the multi-billion dollar tender may further anger the US because state-run defense firm China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp. (CPMIEC), which made the winning bid, has been sanctioned by Washington.

In February, the United States announced sanctions on CPMIEC for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act, Reuters reported on Sept. 26.

Turkey has decided to start contract negotiations with CPMIEC in its six-year project to acquire long-range missile and air defense systems.

“It has been decided to start contract talks with China's CPMIEC for the joint production of the missiles and their systems in Turkey,” said a statement released after a four-hour meeting on Sept. 26 of the Executive Committee (EC) of the Turkish Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM). The EC, chaired by the prime minister, includes the defense minister and the chief of the general staff.

Officials made no announcement to the press after the meeting apart from releasing a statement about the EC's decisions. However, local industry sources told Today's Zaman that the Chinese offer to co-produce the missiles with Turkey involved high-technology transfer to the Turkish defense industry, which played a role in Turkey's choice.

The systems competing in the T-Loramids surface-to-air missile (SAM) acquisition project were the Chinese HQ-9, the US Patriot, Europe's Aster 30 SAMP/T and the Russian S-300.

The tender envisioned the acquisition of 12 missile firing units for a cost of around $4 billion. But China priced their bid at about $3 billion, the sources said.

The project is intended to bridge Turkey's gap in missile defense. Turkey opened a contract in March 2007 for the acquisition of long-range missiles, at the time citing, though implicitly, an effort to deter a possible threat from neighboring Iran.