The United States is to send two rocket-intercepting Patriot missile batteries and 400 soldiers to Turkey, the New York Times reported.

The United States is to send two rocket-intercepting Patriot missile batteries and 400 soldiers to Turkey, the New York Times reported.

“The United States plans to send two Patriot missile batteries and about 400 military personnel to Turkey to defend against a possible Syrian missile attack, two allied officials said Thursday,” the paper reported.

It quoted two allied officials as saying that the two batteries would be a part of six Patriot missiles sent to Turkey by Germany and Netherlands (each country will send two batteries).
“All six batteries will be under NATO’s command and control, scheduled to be operational by the end of January,” the daily said.

NATO foreign ministers last week endorsed the decision to send Patriot batteries to Turkey.
NYT quoted officials as saying that the details of how many each nation would send were not worked out until this week.
It will take three weeks to ship and deploy the two American Patriot batteries, a Defense Department official told the daily.

One allied official said it might be possible to speed up the deployment of the German and Dutch batteries if necessary. Each of those nations will also send up to 400 troops.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands are the only NATO members that have the advanced PAC-3 Patriot system.

The Patriot batteries in Turkey will be linked to NATO’s air-defense system. The response by the missile batteries would be nearly automatic, firing interceptor missiles to destroy the target by ramming into it, a tactic the military calls “hit to kill,” NYT reported.