ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey said today it has chosen a Chinese company to build its first long-range air defense and anti-missile system.
China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp. (CPMIEC) beat competition from a U.S. partnership of Raytheon (IW 500/49) and Lockheed Martin (IW 500/29), Russia's Rosoboronexport, and the Italian-French consortium Eurosamrs in the tender, worth $4 billion according to Turkish media.
Turkey said in an official statement that it has "decided to begin talks with the CPMIEC company of the People's Republic of China for the joint production of the systems and its missiles in Turkey."
Turkey wants to build its own long-range air defense and anti-missile architecture to counter both enemy aircraft and missiles.
In January, NATO began deploying Patriot missile system batteries to help protect Turkey from any spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria.
The Patriot missiles, effective against aircraft and short-range missiles, were provided by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
