Turkey, France Row May Jeopardize Missile Sale

Turkey's suspension of military cooperation with France may make it harder to sell the Franco-Italian Aster 30 air defense missile to the Turkish authorities, a defense executive said Dec. 23. Ankara froze bilateral defense cooperation and recalled its ambassador to France in retaliation to a new French law making it illegal to deny that genocides took place, including the deaths of Armenians in 1915. "It doesn't make things easier, that's for sure," the executive said. "That makes relations tense with France." Eurosam, a joint venture between French electronics company Thales and European missile maker MBDA, is prime contractor for the Sol-Air Moyenne Portée/Terrestre (SAMP/T) ground-based air defense system. The SAMP/T system is competing in Turkey's tender for a long-range air and missile defense system. It is ranged against the Patriot missile from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, the S300 from Russia's Rosoboronexport, and the HQ-9 from China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp. (CPMIEC).