Dear Members and Friends,

United States missile defense assets that will help protect Europe, the U.S. and Turkish territory from Iranian ballistic missile threats will be placed in Turkey.

Turkey, a country which borders Iran and is a participating member of NATO, is going to play a vital role in the missile defense plan used to contain Iran’s continued proliferation of ballistic missiles and future nuclear capability.

These assets, namely the AN/TPY-2 Forward-Based X-Band radars that would be coupled with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries which can handle missile salvo raids, will provide early sensing and the future capability to remotely launch and engage with sea- and land-based interceptor missiles.

The AN/TPY-2 radars deployed in Turkey will provide early tracking information on long range missiles headed towards the U.S. and will be securely linked into the fire control of the 30 Ground-Based Interceptors (GBI) in Alaska and California defending the U.S. A similar architecture is deployed today against North Korea with the AN/TPY-2 radar deployed in Shariki, Japan.

In the future these AN/TPY-2 sensors will have dual capability to perform U.S. sensor duties and the fire control of a THAAD battery; which will offer both endo- and exo-atmospheric protection of Turkey from multiple Iranian ballistic missiles. These AN/TPY-2 sensors will link into the Aegis Ashore scheduled deployments in Romania and Poland to expand their defended areas.

These same deployments are projected to have a forward-based capability to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) heading towards the United States and Europe ten to fifteen years from now.

Ideally, two AN/TPY-2 radars would be deployed in Turkey to provide triangulation and cover the full range of missile paths from Iran to the U.S. and Europe. This system would be complemented with THAAD and Patriot batteries as well as links into U.S. Aegis Missile Defense Ships and Aegis Ashore platforms to provide a multi-layered robust defense. If this is done correctly it would provide a regional ballistic missile defense system that could be applied to any area in the world from the Persian Gulf to South Korea and Japan.

In the impending vote by NATO for territorial missile defense, Turkey’s participation in NATO’s missile defense plans will play a critical part of the aftereffects of a positive vote.

MDAA offers high respect and appreciation to both Turkey and those in the diplomatic corps of the United States that are working to make this happen.

A true delight for our troops based in the region, our European allies and our nation.