Source: Global Security Newswire, 27 February
The commander of US Army forces in Europe on Sunday offered the military's first confirmation that a long-range radar established in Turkey is now online, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Feb. 3).
"We have the forces in place ... at a radar site in southern Turkey," Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said of the US system.
"I can only speak for the ground base air defence units. But I will tell you that we make constant coordination (with the US Navy and Air Force), and I think we are well on track to conduct missile defence."
Ankara had previously declared operational the X-band radar unit installed in Turkey's Kurecik province (see GSN, Jan. 17).
The radar base is a crucial part of the Obama administration's "phased adaptive approach" for European missile defence. The plan involves the gradual fielding between now and 2020 of increasingly advanced missile interceptors at land bases in Romania and Poland and on US battleships home ported in Spain. Those interceptors would be supported by data on potential high-altitude missile threats collected by the radar in Turkey.
"From an Army perspective, the missile defence plans are going as scheduled," Hertling said.
Turkey's hosting of the radar base has brought it into contention with Iran, which is the main target of US missile defence plans for Europe (see GSN, Dec. 15, 2011).
Meanwhile, Israel has authorized a $1.6 billion weapons deal to export unmanned aircraft, air-defence systems and antimissile technology to Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Iran.
Jerusalem believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon and is thought to be weighing a pre-emptive strike against the atomic sites of its longtime foe. Tehran insists its atomic program is strictly peaceful in nature (see related GSN story, today; Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press/Boston Globe, Feb. 27).
Unidentified Israeli defence officials said the deal between Azerbaijan and the state-managed Israel Aerospace Industries had been in the pipeline for an extended period and was not a reaction to Tehran's atomic activities or recent attempted assassinations of Israeli diplomatic officials that have been blamed on Iran, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Feb. 27).