Turkey's Patriot Games

The three locations where Patriot missiles are to be deployed have been announced. According to the prime minister, they will be in Kahramanmaras, Gaziantep and Adana. Why are the Patriots coming? To protect innocent civilians, right? Are you sure?

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Summary : The three Patriot missile batteries being deployed by NATO in Turkey are of questionable defensive value and may be for the defense of radars that mostly work to protect Israel, writes Melih Asik. Publisher: Milliyet (Turkey) Original Title: Patriot Games Author: Melih Asik First Published: December 23, 2012 Posted on: December 26 2012 Translated by: Timur Goksel Categories : Turkey   Security

Do you know the range of a Patriot PAC 3? Only 20 kilometers against missiles. This was revealed by Tuncer Bahcivan on the Gazetecitv website.  PAC  2’s have a range of 160 kilometers but the ones coming from Germany are PAC 3s. These missiles can only defend a military base or an urban center.

The ones at Kahramanmaras are clearly to protect the NATO radar base at Kurecik and the ones at Adana will defend the Incirlik air base. The provinces of Hatay, Sanli Urfa and all the people living in the border region will still be without defense.

What is the function of the AN-TPY 2 radar set up by the Americans at Malatya-Kurecik? To detect ballistic missiles the moment they are launched, report to command center and intercept them in the air by missiles fired from American warships, isn’t it?

THAAD [terminal high-altitude area defense] missiles that intercept ballistic missiles have a range of 200 kilometers.  That means the Kurecik radar can detect a Scud missile fired from Syria and have it intercepted by missiles of the THAAD system. So why did they  decide to bring in three Patriot batteries — just for show?

The answer is in an article by Esad Altan in “21st Century Turkish Institute” website: the Kurecik radar was set up to defend Israel, not Turkey.