link : In Major Policy U-Turn, US Offers $3.5Bn Patriot Package to Turkey
In Major Policy U-Turn, US Offers $3.5Bn Patriot Package to Turkey
Turkey has requested the possible sale of four (4) AN/MPQ-65 Radar Sets, four (4) Engagement Control Stations, ten (10) Antenna Mast Groups (AMGs), twenty (20) M903 Launching Stations, eighty (80) Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missiles (GEM-T) missiles with canisters, sixty (60) PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles, and five (5) Electrical Power Plant (EPP) III.
Also included with this request are communications equipment, tools and test equipment, range and test programs, support equipment, prime movers, generators, publications and technical documentation, training equipment, spare and repair parts, personnel training, Technical Assistance Field Team (TAFT), U.S. Government and contractor technical, engineering, and logistics support services, Systems Integration and Checkout (SICO), field office support, and other related elements of logistics and program support.
The total estimated program cost is $3.5 billion.
This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of a key NATO Ally on the front lines of the fight against terrorism. Turkey is a member of and critical enabling platform for the Defeat-ISIS campaign and continues to be an essential element of our National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy efforts to compete against great powers in both Europe and the Middle East. The TPY-2 radar site that Turkey hosts is important to the European Phased Adaptive Approach and to efforts to protect Allies and partners against growing Iranian ballistic missile threats. This sale is consistent with U.S. initiatives to provide key allies with modern systems capable of being networked to defend against regional instability. The proposed sale will enhance Turkey’s interoperability with the United States and NATO, making it a more valuable partner in an increasingly important area of the world.
Turkey will use Patriot to improve its missile defense capability, defend its territorial integrity, and deter regional threats. The proposed sale will increase the defensive capabilities of the Turkey military to guard against hostile aggression and shield NATO Allies who might train and operate within Turkey's borders. Turkey should have no difficulty absorbing this system into its armed forces.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.
The prime contractors will be Raytheon Corporation in Andover, Massachusetts, and Lockheed-Martin in Dallas, Texas. The purchaser requested offsets. At this time offset agreements are undetermined and will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and contractors.
Implementation of this proposed sale will require approximately 25 U.S. Government and 40 contractor representatives to travel to Turkey for an extended period for equipment de-processing/fielding,
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.
This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: A few years ago, Turkey asked the United States to supply Patriot missiles, but Washington declined.
Turkey then announced it would instead buy Chinese HQ-9 missiles, but subsequently switched to Russia’s S-400.
Contracts for the S-400 have been announced several times, and their delivery is scheduled for 2019.
By now offering to sell Patriot, the US hopes to avoid introducing a Russian-made system into NATO’s air-defense network, as well as major disruption to the F-35 program by expelling Turkey – which it threatened if the S-400 sale went through.
The result, today, is that the United States has given in to Turkey’s original request for Patriot, without knowing whether the S-400 purchase will go through nonetheless.
The Kremlin believes that Turkey's possible purchase of Patriot and of Russian S-400 Triumph air defense systems are not connected, and that the Russia-Turkey contract on S-400 purchase will be continued, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
"These processes are not connected. In this case, we are implementing the agreements that we already have reached with our Turkish colleagues. You know that the project and the contract related to S-400 is being implemented, and it will be continued," Peskov told reporters.)
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U.S. Backs Patriot Missile Sale to Turkey in Breakthrough (excerpt)
The potential $3.5 billion deal for the Patriot system, which is manufactured by Raytheon Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., marks an opening gambit by the Trump administration to get Turkey to halt its purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system, which the administration and Congress had vehemently opposed, according to four people familiar with internal discussions before the announcement.
Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey have escalated in recent years as the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned more authoritarian and the two allies disagreed over U.S. support for Kurdish militias in Syria. In recent days, Erdogan threatened to send his forces in Syria toward Kurdish-held areas where U.S. troops are operating, raising the prospect of a battlefield confrontation between NATO’s two biggest armed forces. (end of excerpt)
Click here for the full story, on the Bloomberg website.
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