WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. under secretary of state
for arms control welcomed on Wednesday Turkey’s decision to purchase
missiles from the United States. Ellen Tauscher, the U.S. under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said that the United States was pleased that Turkey would buy patriot missiles from the United States.
The United States had invited all NATO members, including Turkey, to join the missile shield project on which Obama administration was to make changes, Tauscher told the AA correspondent.
Tauscher said the new system would ensure more protection to Turkey when compared with the system proposed by the previous U.S. administration.
The U.S. under secretary said that only the U.S. presence was in question in the previous system, however the new system would also be American but in addition other countries could contribute to it with “assemble-use” model and with the technologies they purchased or developed by themselves.
Therefore, the United States wanted all its allies to establish dialogue with itself to be a part of this new system, Tauscher said.
The U.S. under secretary also defined Turkey as a significant ally and strategic country.
On September 9, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), a part of the U.S. Department of Defense, said the Obama administration could make a deal with Turkey to sell Patriot Advanced Capability-3 guided missile systems, which would be the biggest weapons deal ever between the two countries.
In its statement, DSCA said, the DSCA notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Turkey of 13 PATRIOT Fire Units, 72 PATRIOT Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles, four PAC-3 Lot Validation Missiles, 197 MIM-104E PATRIOT Guidance Enhanced Missiles-T (GEM-T), four MIM-104E GEM-T Lot Validation Missiles, five PATRIOT Digital Missiles, five Anti-Tactical Missiles and other related support and equipment. The estimated cost is 7.8 billion USD.
AA