Turkey selects Chinese missile defence system
In an unexpected move, Turkey has selected a Chinese firm as the preferred bidder for its Turkish Long Range Air and Missile Defence System (T-LORAMIDS) programme after it undercut the Western competition.
The China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CPMIEC) was selected following its proposal for the joint production of FD-2000 medium- to long-range missile systems.
The decision comes as a surprise since Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) was expected to announce a shortlist that would include Raytheon and Lockheed Martin’s Patriot surface-to-air missile and French-Italian Eurosam’s Aster 30 SAMP-T missile system.
NATO’s Patriot systems are already
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