Mar 4, 2020

The Donald Trump administration is talking with Turkey about the delivering the Patriot system, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said today, despite killing a sale to Ankara last year. The NATO ally has requested the American-made air defense system amid a standoff with the Syrian regime in the contested Idlib province.

“We continue to talk to them about Patriot,” said Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer. “Turks are very important to us; we have many different collaborations with them at many different levels. We would love to see the removal of the S-400 and we would love to see the Patriots go in.”

After Turkey took delivery of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system in July, the Trump administration pulled a $3.5 billion offer for competing Patriot batteries. Turkey previously received the defense systems on a loan basis during tensions on its southern border with Syria in 2013 as well as European systems.

A source familiar with the matter told Al-Monitor that US Special Representative for Syria Engagement Jim Jeffrey wants Turkey to request the Patriot system through NATO, as opposed to the United States. Jeffrey traveled to Syria on Tuesday with US envoy to the United Nations Kelly Craft, though it is unclear whether the delegation met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the trip.

Lord said that despite the US decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 program in the wake of receiving the S-400, which the Pentagon fears could erode the stealth fighter jet’s ability to evade Russian radar systems, other sales programs to the NATO ally haven’t slowed down. Turkey would have to send a formal request to the Pentagon to buy the Patriot system.