The heads of Eurosam, Aselsan and Roketsan signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) in Ankara on 14th July under the aegis of the Turkish Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) to launch in-depth co-operation in the field of air and missile defence.

The HoA sets the work sharing agreements for a definition study with the SSM on a long-range air and missile defence system to be launched in the coming months.

The future Turkish air and missile system will be based on the technologies and experience that Eurosam has built in ground and naval systems using the Aster missile over 25 years and €11bn of collective investment.

These systems have already been delivered to the home nations of France and Italy and several export customers, and are able to defeat the most challenging air-breathing or ballistic threats. The future programme will be managed in synergy with future evolutions of the Eurosam systems in France and Italy. The Eurosam consortium is composed of Thales and MBDA.

On the occasion of the HoA signature, Eurosam CEO Michel Vigneras noted that the Italian Army has deployed two Eurosam-built SAMP/T firing units since June 2016 as part of NATO’s contribution to the defence of Turkey against potential missile threats from beyond NATO’s southeastern flank.

In a separate development suggesting that the competition to meet the Turkish requirement may not yet be closed, Bloomberg reported that Turkey has agreed to acquire Russian S-400 air defence systems in a $2.5bn deal involving two batteries to be delivered by Moscow and a further two to be produced in Turkey. In recent months, Turkey also announced, then abandoned, plans to buy air defence systems from China.