Eurosam, the consortium producing SAMP-T is currently competing against U.S, Russian and Chinese bidders for a Turkish national missile defense project expected to be worth $2 billion. Turkey is seeking to establish a national missile defense that will be separate from the NATO missile defense shield launched by the European alliance in Lisbon last week. Apart from SAMP/T from Eurosam, Turkey is also considering the Patriot PAC-3 from Lockheed Martin, the Russia’s S-400 built by the Russian missile consortium Almaz, and Chinese FD-2000. Turkey considers fielding four sites, the first to be established in Istanbul and Ankara, with two other locations to be decided based on threat level.
The current program represents less than half the scope of a more ambitious plan discussed two years ago, fielding 12 missile defense sites throughout the country, at an investment of more than four billion dollars. The former plan also considered the acquisition of the Israeli Arrow 2 missile defense system or the Green Pine radar system, but these have been ruled out after the collapse of the Israel-Turkey defense cooperation, that followed the political rift between the two countries, led by Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan.
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