WASHINGTON, the USA (BulgarianMilitary.com) — Despite the ongoing disputes in connection with the decision of Turkey to buy the Russian air defence system S-400, the United States State Department has cleared Ankara to purchase a package of Patriot systems at the estimated price of $3.5 billion, learned BulgarianMilitary.com

Read more: Turkey’s Foreign Minister Considers the Purchase of Russian S-400s to be a “Done Deal”

The announcement was posted on 18th December 2018 on the website of the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).

Read more: Turkey will Start Deployment of the Russian S-400 systems in October 2019

The future procurement would involve 80 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced and 60 PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missiles, including the relevant equipment. In addition to the missiles, the package also includes 4 AN/MPQ-65 Radar Sets, 4 Engagement Control Stations, 10 Antenna Mast Groups, 20 M903 Launching Stations, and 5 Electrical Power Plant III systems. Quantities may vary depending on the dollar rate of exchange.

Read more: Turkey is Again Warned By the USA on the Russian S-400s

However, as it is known, the Senate must approve a sale before a customer and the U.S. government enter contract negotiations.

The Patriot was passed over by Turkey twice by now over the years. The first time was in 2013 when the country chose a Chinese system that it later dropped out of, and the second time was in 2017 when Turkey preferred to finalize the S-400 deal. In both cases, Turkey insisted on a transfer of missile technology regarding the Patriot before it would consider the system and the USA was not willing to do that. Now it is not clear yet whether that newly proposed sale will include technology transfer.

Read more: The Manufacturing of the Russian S-400 Missiles Sold to Turkey Is On

Speaking on background ahead of the announcement, a department spokesperson explained that Turkey “will use Patriot to improve its air and missile defence capability, defend its territorial integrity, and deter regional threats. The proposed sale will increase the defensive capabilities of the Turkish military to guard against hostile aggression and shield NATO allies who might train and operate within Turkey’s borders.”

The Patriot System is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, which uses an advanced aerial interceptor missile and high-performance radar systems.

Follow us everywhere and at any time. BulgarianMilitary.com has responsive design and you can open the page from any computer, mobile devices or web browsers. For more up-to-date news from us, follow our Reddit, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ pages. Do not miss the chance to subscribe to our newsletter.

BulgarianMilitary.com

Source: Defense News, Wikipedia