Alwaght- Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Friday revealed over 20 new defense industry projects as the country moves to boost its defense amid a rift with NATO military alliance.
Speaking in Erzincan, eastern Turkey, Yildirim said the projects included air defense systems, tank modernization, electronic protection systems and sea vessels. Requirements of the Interior Ministry and Turkey's gendarmerie would also be met, he said.
“We agreed on 22 projects, worth $5 billion, during yesterday’s Defense Industry Executive Committee meeting,” Yildirim told reporters.
The executive committee of Turkey’s Defense Industry Undersecretariat was convened on Thursday by the presidency to discuss the modernization of Turkey's armed forces and the improvement of its defense industry infrastructure.
After the meeting, the committee announced that it discussed and approved the "development and production of indigenous long-range defense systems, missiles and smart ammunition, electronic war systems, grenade launchers, rifles, guns, surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, combat and general purpose helicopters and drones."
Meanwhile, the general director of Russia's state-run defense company Rostec, Sergey Chemezov announced that the Turkey-Russia S-400 deal exceeded $2 billion.
Speaking to a Russian news agency, Chemezov said, "The cost of the S-400 missile defense system would exceed $2 billion." Turkey's purchase of Russian weapons systems has raised concern in NATO that Ankara is drifting towards Moscow. A dispute with Germany this month resulted in Berlin withdrawing troops from Turkey’s Incirlik, the main air base of the US- led coalition engaged in illegal aggression on Syria. Turkey is also at odds with top NATO member, the US, over Washington's close ties with Kurdish YPG militias in Syria, a group which is linked to separatist PKK Kurdish terrorist group.
