NATO is deploying another American Patriot missile defense system to the southern Turkish province of Adana, where personnel from the United States and other countries are stationed at Incirlik Air Base, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.
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Turkey, which has NATO's second-largest army and borders Iran, said last week that the alliance had deployed a Patriot system in the southeastern province of Malatya, near a NATO radar base, as part of measures to bolster air defenses against missile threats from Iran, Reuters reported.
Adana is home to a Turkish air base, which hosts personnel from the United States, Qatar, Spain, and Poland, as well as Turkish troops.
“In addition to the national level measures taken to ensure the security of our airspace and our citizens, another Patriot system ordered by the Allied Air Force Command in Ramstein (Germany) is being deployed in Adana, in addition to the existing Spanish Patriot system deployed there,” the ministry said in a statement.
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Turkey does not have its own fully-fledged air defense system, despite efforts to develop one, and has relied on NATO air defense systems deployed in the eastern Mediterranean to intercept three missiles it says have been launched from Iran since the start of the war.
Earlier, United States President Donald Trump said that America does not need the help of allies in a war with Iran.
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