Scott Nicholas
MEADS International, a joint venture between MBDA‘s German and Italian units and Lockheed Martin, has proposed a customized partnership with Turkey to develop the country’s first long-range air and missile defense system, Defense News reported Wednesday.
Burak Ege Bekdil writes MEADS representatives have visited Turkey in previous months for preliminary talks and anticipate formal contract negotiations to begin within the year.
“We are offering an open-architecture system that aims to take in already existing Turkish systems or help the Turkish industry develop systems to be integrated into the architecture,” said Mirko Niederkofler, MEADS director of international business development.
The report said Turkish and MEADS officials have both confirmed further talks on a potential eight-battery Medium Extended Air Defense System for the country will occur at an upcoming security conference in Munich and the International Defense Industry Fair in May.
MEADS is also working to secure contracts with Germany and Poland on the delivery of the air and missile defense weapons system, Bekdil adds.
The MEADS offering was developed through a joint $4 billion investment by Germany, Italy and the U.S. in a push to replace the Patriot missile system via a NATO program.
