US State Department in talks with Turkey to sell Patriot system
FARNBOROUGH - The US State Department is negotiating a potential deal to sell Turkey the Raytheon Co Patriot missile defense system as an alternative to the Russian-made S-400 system Turkey has agreed to purchase, an official said on Monday.
US Ambassador Kaidanow, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, told reporters that a delegation of US government officials at the Farnborough Airshow was holding meetings with allies in the hopes of bolstering US defense trade.
She said the US State Department was in talks with Turkey and "trying to give the Turks an understanding of what we can do with respect to Patriot." She did not say if the delegations were meeting at the air show.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Kevin Fahey, the Pentagon's most senior official weapons buyer at the show, told reporters: "Turkey has had an interest in Patriot, so we've been working for a while how we can make that work."
Turkey has attracted criticism from NATO allies over its planned purchase of the S-400 missile defense systems from Russia, which could jeopardize Ankara's purchase of Lockheed Martin made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets.
