Turkey snubs NATO allies to buy missile defense system from China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-09-29

Launchers for China's FD-2000 missiles. (Internet photo)

Turkey's Defense Industry Executive Committee has chosen the Chinese-built FD-2000, the export version of the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile, as its new air defense system under a contract worth US$4 billion on Sept. 26, reports our sister newspaper Want Daily.

The choice was made from a list of missile systems including the US Patriot, Russian S-400 and the French SAMP-T. One of the major allies of the United States in the Middle East, Turkey will become the first NATO member to introduce a Chinese air defense system for its military. Turkey considered that medium-to-long-range missiles such as the FD-2000 are more suitable than the short-range Patriot for preventing ballistic missiles and aircraft from Syria striking the country's interior.

The FD-2000 is able to intercept 16 targets at once at a range of 200 kilometers while the range of Patriot missiles is only 160 kilometers, according to Li Jie, a Chinese military analyst. Facing the prospect that Syria's civil war could cross into Turkish territory, the Patriot surface-to-air missiles deployed by other NATO members to the country's border regions are evidently considered insufficient, yet the purchase of the FD-2000 may create tensions between Turkey and its NATO allies.

NATO will not allow the two air defense systems to be used in combination by the Turkish military in order to prevent the possibility that China could steal critical intelligence regarding the Patriot system. This is also the primary reason the United States had warned Turkey not to buy any weapons system from country that is not a NATO member.