Another Patriot system deployed in Turkey

Adana Province is home to the Incirlik Air Base, where personnel from the United States, Qatar, Spain, Poland, and Turkey are stationed. The deployment of the additional system was announced on Wednesday by Turkish Ministry of Defense spokesperson Zeki Akturk. “In addition to the national-level measures taken to ensure the security of our airspace and our citizens, another Patriot system is being deployed in Adana, assigned by the Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany, alongside the Spanish Patriot system already stationed there,” he said.

A week earlier, a decision had been made to deploy a Patriot system in Malatya Province, near a NATO radar base in the southeastern part of the country.

The Alliance’s actions are linked to the ongoing war in the Middle East. Since the US and Israeli attack on Iran, three ballistic missiles have been launched toward Turkey—all of which have so far been intercepted by NATO air defense units. Turkey has criticized all parties involved in the conflict: the United States and Israel for “an attack on a sovereign country in violation of international law,” and Iran for its strikes against other states in the region. On March 17, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized that Turkey’s goal is to bring an end as quickly as possible to what he called a “senseless, unlawful, and profoundly misguided war.”