Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and French President Emmanuel Macron are negotiating a major air defense agreement that could pave the way for Turkey to purchase and co-produce the French-Italian SAMP/T Mamba missile defense system, Intelligence Online reported Monday.
According to the Paris-based intelligence and defense publication, the possible deal is expected to be discussed ahead of the NATO summit scheduled to take place in Ankara in July. The report said plans to co-produce the SAMP/T surface-to-air missile system in Turkey are now “taking shape” after years of delays in Ankara’s efforts to secure a European air and missile defense platform.
The SAMP/T system is produced by Eurosam, a Franco-Italian consortium owned by MBDA France, MBDA Italy and Thales. It is designed to protect military forces and strategic sites against aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile threats.
The system has long been seen as a possible European alternative for Turkey following Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, which triggered a major crisis with the United States and other NATO allies.
Washington removed Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program over the S-400 deal, arguing that the Russian system could endanger NATO defense technology. Turkey, however, has maintained that it turned to Moscow only after failing to obtain comparable air defense systems from its Western allies under acceptable conditions.
Turkey, France and Italy signed a letter of intent in 2017 to deepen cooperation on air and missile defense, including work linked to the SAMP/T platform. However, the project stalled amid political tensions between Ankara and Paris over Syria, Libya, the eastern Mediterranean and Turkey’s relations with Russia.
The renewed talks come as Turkey seeks to develop a layered national air defense architecture known as the “Steel Dome,” combining domestically produced systems with potential foreign platforms.
Bloomberg reported in April that Turkey was in talks with Italy to buy and co-produce the SAMP/T system, citing people familiar with the matter. The latest Intelligence Online report suggests that France has now returned to the center of the negotiations.
The possible deal also comes despite recent French moves signaling continued support for Turkey’s regional rivals, including the renewal of France’s defense cooperation with Greece in April and Macron’s public backing for Armenia’s pro-European government in May.
Still, the SAMP/T negotiations — together with the new partnership between Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar and France’s Safran — suggest that Paris may be pursuing a parallel track with Ankara. While France continues to balance its ties with Greece and Armenia, it also appears to be reassessing Turkey’s role in European security, drone warfare, air defense production, energy routes and NATO planning.
At a time of weapons shortages, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, instability in the Middle East and uncertainty over the future of US security commitments to Europe, Turkey’s defense industry and strategic geography are becoming harder for European powers to ignore.
