Turkey Turns To Its Own Industry For Long Range Missile Defense

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After years of relying on imported foreign technology, Turkey has recently decided to develop indigenous long range missile system instead of buying it from other nations, Defense World reports.

“Instead of importing, the nation should focus on constructing indigenous long range missile system.” Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview aired in Turkish television earlier this month.

“Turkey cancelled the existing missile project tender with a recent decision by the Defense Industry Executive Committee so the country could focus on development of long-range missile defense system developed by indigenous means.” He added.

“We have been able to produce a lot of our armaments domestically. We were not even able to dream of this 13 years ago but we went beyond this,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying by Hurryet Daily News only last week.

“Turkey will even start soon to export armaments instead of “importing” them,” The president stated. However, the nation is currently producing missiles but the level of range is not up to the requirement.

“That’s what we have been negotiating at the moment; we want it to be both national and domestic and we want it to be ‘long range attack,’” he added.

The Undersecretariat of the Defense Industry (SSM) will work on this project and the project could be carried out either by opening a tender that might involve either China or France, or by an intergovernmental agreement, Erdoğan said.

Turkey has given up a tentative agreement to buy a $3.4 billion long range missile defense system from a Chinese company, ending a deal that ran for two years and had worried NATO allies. Turkey selected China Precision Machinery Import Export Corp (CPMIEC) for the project but Ankara came under pressure from its NATO allies over the possibility of selecting a Chinese system, and launched parallel talks with the European and US contenders. On Nov. 13, Turkey canceled the competition. A military official said cancellation of the foreign competition did not mean Turkey gave up on the program.

“The threats which required these [long-range air and anti-missile] capabilities still exist. This will remain a priority program involving indigenous work,” he said.

One senior procurement official said local development looks like the most feasible option.

“We believe that a group of local companies are capable of developing the system, with or without foreign know-how,” he said.

The government may soon commission missile maker Roketsan and military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey’s biggest defense firm, to go ahead with the program. Both companies are state-controlled.