The First and the Second Gulf Wars, the Arab Spring, and the ongoing civil war in Syria spurred Turkey’s defence leadership to develop and implement new strategies for risk mitigation. Opinion| MerveSerennn
Turkey's missile threat perception began to increase by the early 1980s, the decade when chaos and political instability made inroads into the Middle East, starting with the Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988. The two regional rivals devoted a large portion of their resources to advanced military studies and the procurement of multiple types of missile technologies, and they were not hesitant to display their missile strike capabilities.
The creation and use of missile technology in countries like Iraq can end up in the wrong hands such as terror groups like the PKK, which has trained its members and planned attacks against Turkey from the mountains of Iraq and Syria. It started with the launch of “Turkish Long-Range Air and Missile Defense System ” to replace old systems like the 1950s' Nike-Hercules with new high-tech shields. By 2015, Turkey completed all the requirements from opening tenders to examining them through a technical grading system. While a Chinese bidder topped it, Russia offered Ankara an upgraded version of the S-300, which did not meet Turkish defence requirements.
Indeed, Ankara realised the urgent need to develop its own indigenous systemic and high-tech integrated national missile defence system while keeping its strong sense of commitment and loyalty to NATO, without being "an Alliance dependent" country. In other words, Turkey decided to apply a new strategy to eliminate the security deficit by overcoming one-sided dependency on NATO and searched for alternative procurement models.
Consequently, Turkey is seeking to have an integrated and complex layered air and missile defence system, which will be developed and built up both by national and foreign firms. On the one hand, Turkey acquires Russian S-400s by foreign direct procurement, which includes some level of work share and technology transfer.
Buying S-400s also means a long-term strategic partnership between Ankara and Moscow; not only in technical terms but also on military, economic and political levels.
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