Patriot Missile Batteries To Defend Turkey From Possible Attack

Patriot Missile Batteries To Defend Turkey From Possible Attack

In addition to four hundred military personnel, two Patriot missile batteries will be sent by the United States into Turkey to help the country in its defense against possible missile attacks by Syria.

Aside from the two missile batteries from the US, Germany and the Netherlands are also expected to deploy four additional Patriot missile batteries into the country. The six missile batteries will be under the control of NATO.

Turkey is concerned about possible attacks from Syrian missiles following its support for the opposition against Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria. Increasing activities in a number of chemical sites in Syria has increased these concerns since the Scuds of Syria have the capability of carrying chemical weapons.

Forces loyal to the beleaguered Syrian president recently mounted Scud missile attacks against the rebels in the northern part of Syria. Although the Scud missiles carried conventional warheads, it indicated that the government of Assad is willing to use the missiles against the rebels.

The NATO endorsement of sending the missile was made last week but the details on number that will be sent by each country were only finalized this week. Most of the ten sites identified by allied officials are located in the southeastern part of Turkey.

Since the length of time that the batteries will have to be deployed in Turkey was uncertain, the US did not send more than the two missile batteries it will deliver.

The main goal of sending the missile batteries was to show NATO’s commitment for the defense of Turkey. Only Germany, the Netherlands and the United States have the more advanced models of the missile battery among all NATO members. The two Patriot missile batteries from the US may take around three weeks to deliver.

Targets will be destroyed by the Patriot missile batteries in a “hit to kill” tactic, where interceptors will ram the target to destroy it.

Posted by James Fried on Friday December 14 2012, 8:34 AM EDT. Ref: NY Times. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0