Turkey To Develop Home-Grown Missile Defense System

Turkey is eyeing to develop its own missile defense system to be operated by NATO so as to increase chances of entering the alliance and to increase military exports by 15 times in the next seven years.

"We have cancelled the results of the tender, not the project itself. Soon we will enter a new phase, where domestic companies, including Roketsan and Havelsan, will participate. We continue the development of short-, medium- and long-range systems, gradually increasing the range. We will not make any direct purchases, but at the same time the missile defense system we are developing, will be integrated in the NATO system. We consider that joint work with NATO will speed up the process [of the development]," Ismail Demir, the head of Turkey's Under-secretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) was quoted as saying to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet in an interview by Sputnik.

In November 2015, Turkey cancelled a $4 billion tender to purchase components for the country’s missile defense system, as it decided to develop the system domestically.

He added that it is Ankara's objective to create an entirely domestically-produced defense system and to increase Turkey's military exports by 15 times in the next seven years.

In 2009, Turkey put out a tender for the creation of its missile defense system. The US consortium Raytheon-Lockheed Martin, Europe's Eurosam and Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport all entered bids, however, China's CPMIEC ultimately won the tender.