Turkey, Israel to develop Arrow 2 missile system

The Turkish Daily News said on Friday that a Turkish military delegation will head this month or at the beginning of April to Israel to discuss the possibility of having Turkey take part in the development of the anti-ballistic missiles of the "Arrow 2" missile system, which the US and Israel are developing.

The paper quoted a well-informed source as saying to the paper that there is no formal US consent yet for having Turkey take part in the program of developing Arrow 2 missiles. But talks are continuous between Turkey and Israel over this issue.

The Turkish Daily News added that Israel will deploy Arrow 2 missile batteries to protect its territories against any outside missile attack.

The paper quoted a Turkish source as saying that after having the consent of the US, both Israel and Turkey can agree on the quality of technology that Israel may agree to transfer to Turkey over producing Arrow 2 missiles.

The Turkish paper indicated that if the US agrees on the possibility of Turkey having the technology of Arrow missiles, Turkey will then be ready to buy 30 batteries of Arrow missiles, adding that setting up a missile defense system in Turkey will be at a cost of US $5 billion.