Turkey said on Tuesday that a US Patriot air defense system was deployed to its southeast, near a NATO radar base, as part of steps by the alliance to boost air defenses in the face of missile threats from the Iran war.
It is being deployed to Malatya province, the location of the Kurecik NATO radar base, which provides vital data for the alliance and helped identify two Iranian ballistic missiles heading toward Turkey over the last week.
Iran has said it is not at war with regional countries and denies explicitly targeting its neighbor Turkey. Ankara has warned Tehran against firing any more missiles towards it and the two countries' presidents discussed the issue on Monday.
"In addition to the measures we take on a national level, air and missile defense measures by NATO have been increased. In that framework, one Patriot System is being deployed to Malatya to contribute to defending our air space," the defense ministry said.
It added that Turkey would continue to evaluate regional developments and cooperate with NATO allies.
The deployment comes amid reports that Washington is looking into redeploying its military assets, including Patriot systems, currently stationed in South Korea.
It was not immediately clear where the Patriot system or its batteries were being redeployed from.
Turkey, an emerging leader in the global defense industry that has the alliance's second-largest army, lacks its own fully fledged air defenses despite development efforts, and has relied on NATO air defenses stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in both missile incidents in the last week.
There is currently one Patriot system, from Spain, deployed in Turkey as part of NATO defenses.
NATO intercepts second Iranian missile over Turkey
Additionally, on Monday, NATO confirmed that it had intercepted another missile heading to Turkey.
"NATO stands firm in its readiness to defend all allies against any threat," NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said in a post on X.
Turkey said earlier on Monday that NATO air defenses shot down a second ballistic missile that was fired from Iran and had entered Turkish airspace, warning that it will take any necessary steps against threats.