Turkey: Decision on first long-range air and anti-missile defense system, likely in early 2015

A final decision on Turkey’s disputed contract for the construction of the country’s first long-range air and anti-missile defense system will most likely come in early 2015, a senior defense official said in an interview with the prominent U.S.-based defense journal Defense News.

After Ankara selected a Chinese company in September 2013 to build the air defense architecture and came under heavy pressure from its Western allies for the decision, it also opened parallel negotiations this summer with a European contender in the multibillion dollar competition.

Contract negotiations with the Chinese manufacturer, China Precision Machinery Import Export Corp (CPMIEC), are also in progress but President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said talks have also opened with Eurosam, the European contender in the program.

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