Italian missile maker MBDA seeks partnership with Turkey

World defense industry giants are vying for a $4 billion long-range missile system tender launched by Turkey. The US is competing for the tender with its Patriot missiles, Russia with its S-400s, China with its FD-2000, and the French-Italian partnership Eurosam is competing with its Samp/T model missiles. Italian defense industry professionals visiting Turkey ahead of the tender have wooed Turkey with pledges of technology transfers. Sergio Cavicchi, the vice president in charge of exports at Eurosam's Italian partner MBDA, said they hope for a strategic partnership with Turkey, adding that the Italian defense industry used to see Turkey as just a purchaser of products. "We have a different strategy now," he told a group of Turkish journalists touring MBDA facilities. "The Turkish defense industry is developing, and overall competition in the world is growing fiercer. If we get the tender, we will bring our technology and know-how to Turkey so we can market these missiles to the world together." Turkey plans to procure four defense systems under the Long-Range Regional Air and Missile Defense System Project. However, the country may decrease the number of missile batteries if a large number of missiles are placed in Turkey under a planned NATO missile shield project.