Defence: Italian Samp-T missile system to be deployed in Turkey

An Italian-owned Samp-T missile system is to be deployed in Turkey at the Third Command of the Konya base in Central Anatolia. The Turkish Ministry of Defence announced this in a statement, specifying that the operation forms part of “NATO’s permanent defence plan and is intended to strengthen the Alliance’s air defence”. The Samp-T (manufactured by the Eurosam consortium, a joint venture between MBDA Italia, MBDA France and Thales) is a surface-to-air defence system designed to counter aerial and missile threats. The operation forms part of the Patriot mission under NATO’s Supreme Allied Command Europe, established in 2013 to enhance Turkey’s air defence capabilities.

Since March, following the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, NATO forces have been called upon four times to shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles heading towards Turkish territory, leading the Alliance to deploy a new battery of Patriot missiles at Incirlik Air Base, in the south of the country near the Syrian border.

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