Post by sevenofnine on Apr 22, 2015 17:28:26 GMT -5
Really $$$ deal for Chinese here
China has won the bid to co-produce a multibillion long-range air and missile defence system in Turkey, in what is its largest and most advanced arms sales to a Nato country.
The Turkish defence minister announced the decision to approve the US$3 billion bid by China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp, rejecting rival offers from Russian, US and European firms.
The winning Chinese FD-2000 system beat the Patriot, the Russian S-400 and the French-Italian Eurosam Samp-T, it was announced on Thursday.
The FD-2000 is the export designation of the HQ-9 air-defence system.
Turkey, which has the second-largest military force by personnel numbers in the Nato alliance, has no long-range missile defence system of its own, but Nato has deployed the US-built Patriot air and missile defence system there since 2012.
In January, Turkey restructured its US$4 billion surface-to-air missile programme, dubbed T-Loramids, which had originally been made as an off-the-shelf purchase consisting of radar, launchers and intercept missiles.
As a Nato member equipped with the US' Patriot defence systems, Turkey has been urged by its Western allies to remove China and Russia from its bidding list for air-defence projects because of questions over Chinese compatibility with its existing Nato-sponsored early warning architecture.
Raytheon, which builds the Patriot missile system, said it had been informed about the Turkish decision and hoped to get a briefing soon. "Nato has long supported the system, deploying Patriots in five aligned countries and, in 2012, providing a requested
www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1319547/turkey-buy-chinese-missile-defence-system#comments
!!
