Jordan In Talks Over MIM-104 Patriots Purchase

28/05/2013 by Paul Fiddian - Armed Forces International's Lead Reporter

Jordan is engaged in discussions with "friendly nations" concerning the acquisition and deployment of MIM-104 Patriot missiles on home ground, after Turkey recently did the same thing.

As was reported earlier this month, Turkey has acquired four Patriot missile batteries to try and secure its borders as it faces the prospect of violence spilling over from Syria, which lies to the south. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan also shares a border with Syria so it, too, is concerned about what might happen if the latter's disturbances expand beyond its territory. Since Syria's civil war erupted, close to half a million people have fled it and settled in Jordan.

"We wish and we demand Patriot missiles", Abdullah Nsur - the Prime Minister of Jordan - stated in comments recently quoted by newspaper Al-Sharq. "We always talk about this because we want to protect ourselves."

Jordanian Patriot Talks

This statement was updated on 26 May by Mohammed Momani, Jordan's Information Minister. "Jordan wishes to deploy Patriot missile batteries in order to boost its defense capabilities and help protect the country", he explained to journalists, adding: "We are currently at the stage of talks with friendly states."

The MIM-104 Patriot SAM (surface-to-air) missile is a modern military icon. First designed in the late 1960s, it went into series production in 1976 and, to date, more than 10,000 missiles have been manufactured. Nations currently equipped with Patriot missile systems include the United States, Taiwan, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Spain and the UAE.

MIM-104 Patriots Purchase

The Turkish MIM-104 Patriots purchase was NATO-approved in December 2012, for the specific purpose of providing protection against missiles fired from inside Syria.

The Royal Jordanian Army's current air defence inventory is dominated by Soviet and Russian designs, such as the Pantsir-S1E and ZSU-23-4 Shilka, but also includes 85 US-origin M163 Vulcan Air Defense Systems.

In related news, last month, MIM-104 manufacturer Raytheon announced that the world's Patriots had at least another 15 years' service left in them. It reached this verdict after carrying out a three-year study, funded by the US Government and other sources.