Sept. 30, 2013 defense-aerospace.com
(Source: Reuters; published Sept. 28, 2013)
U.S. Concerned About Turkey's Choice of Chinese Missile System (excerpt)
The United States said on Saturday it had expressed serious concerns to Turkey over its decision to co-produce a long-range air and missile defense system with a Chinese firm under U.S. sanctions.
Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance, announced this week that it had chosen the FD-2000 missile defense system from China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp, or CPMIEC, over rival systems from Russian, U.S. and European firms.
CPMIEC is under U.S. sanctions for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act.
"We have conveyed our serious concerns about the Turkish government's contract discussions with a U.S.-sanctioned company for a missile defense system that will not be inter-operable with NATO systems or collective defense capabilities," a State Department spokeswoman said.
"Our discussions on this issue will continue." (end of excerpt)
Click here for the full story, on the Reuters website.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Sources in Turkey say that the reasons for choosing the Chinese missile over its competitors include its reportedly 25% lower acquisition cost and much lower running costs; the possibility of incorporating Turkish systems and subsystems; and the fear that US-supplied missiles might be incapacitated if used against Israeli missiles.)
commenter cet article …