Turkey is reportedly advancing towards purchasing one of the best Air-To-Air missiles in the world, if not the best. Although a potential deal for the missile has not been officially confirmed, it has left Turkey’s long-time rival, Greece, fuming.
The Meteor is an advanced Beyond-Visual-Range Air-to-Air Missile developed and manufactured by the MBDA. The consortium’s stakeholders, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden, must approve the sale of the missile to an interested buyer.
Turkey reportedly wants the Meteor air-to-air missile to arm the 40 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters that it has been seeking. Intriguingly, a report published in the French publication La Tribune claimed that the purchase of the Typhoon has now become conditional on them being equipped with the Meteor missile.
Some Turkish media reports, however, claimed that the UK was holding talks with France to secure approval for the sale of Meteors to Turkey. Notably, the UK had earlier lobbied to convince Germany to lift the embargo on selling Eurofighter Typhoons to Turkey.
Turkey’s arch-nemesis, Greece, has not taken well to these reports. Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias told Laurence Auer, the French ambassador to Greece, that his country is opposed to the potential sale of Meteor missiles to Turkey by a consortium that also includes France. The Defense Minister announced on social media site X that he met with Auer at the Defense Ministry and requested “an official update on reports about the sale of Meteor missiles to Turkey by a consortium in which France is participating.”
“I expressed to the French ambassador the strong opposition of Greece to such a possibility, which is not in line with the excellent strategic relations between the two countries,” he wrote in the post, expressing his country’s admonishment over the reports.
Greece’s strong opposition is neither surprising nor unprecedented. The country is at loggerheads with Turkey over the Aegean Sea, and this conflict has adversely impacted Greek-Turkish ties since the 1970s and almost led to military confrontations.
Recently, Greece managed to position itself as one of the most advanced air forces in the region with the purchase of French Rafale fighters. The last of the 24 French-made Rafales touched down at the 114th Combat Wing at Tanagra Air Base earlier this month.
The completion of Greece’s Rafale fighter jet acquisition has been hailed as a watershed moment, as it allows Athens to hold clear air superiority over Ankara, its fiercest rival.
Notably, the milestone has not only been attributed to the 4.5th generation Rafale aircraft but also to the Meteor missile, which will be integrated with the French fighter jet.
The struggle for air superiority has long been at the heart of Greece and Turkey’s geopolitical competition over the disputed Aegean Sea, a site of frequent aerial confrontations.
In recent years, Greece not only managed to induct the cutting-edge Rafale but also made progress in its potential acquisition of F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters.
In contrast, Turkey has been staring at an archaic Air Force fleet composed of outdated F-16 fighters. It managed to secure the approval for upgraded F-16s just last year, in exchange for ratifying Sweden’s membership of NATO.
It is also closer than ever to purchasing the Eurofighter Typhoons that, much to Greece’s concern, are comparable to the French Rafale.
If the reports of the potential sale of Eurofighter Typhoons to Turkey unnerved Greece, the addition of the “world’s best” air-to-air missile is likely to have exacerbated those concerns.
The World’s Best Missile Meteor
Known as one of the world’s most advanced Beyond-Visual-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (BVRAAM), the Meteor will greatly enhance the Turkish Air Force’s aerial combat capabilities.
The missile, renowned for its capability to engage high-speed targets at distances of up to 200 kilometers and speeds exceeding Mach 4, will provide the Turkish Eurofighter Typhoons with a cutting-edge tool to establish aerial dominance.
The Meteor represents a technological leap intended to surpass the American AIM-120 AMRAAM, a long-standing benchmark in BVRAAM technology.
The missile allows launch aircraft to offer mid-course target updates or retargeting, including information from third parties. This is done by integrating a two-way data link communication system and a state-of-the-art active radar seeker.
In essence, the pilot launching the Meteor receives crucial information about the missile’s fuel, energy, and tracking state through the datalink, aiding in decisions to fire another, disengage, or assign a different target, thus improving the missile’s precision, lethality, and kill probability against hostile targets.
According to MBDA, the Meteor can fire multiple shots at a variety of targets, including planes, cruise missiles, long-range moving targets, and unmanned aerial vehicles, even in conditions with strong electronic counter-measures. The Meteor provides all-weather capability to engage a wide variety of targets.
Meteor is known for its remarkable kinematic performance achieved through its distinctive ramjet propulsion system—solid fuel, variable flow, ducted rocket.
MBDA highlights that this “ramjet” motor creates the greatest No-Escape Zone– within which there is a high kill probability against a target even if it has been alerted–is more than 60 kilometers. This is believed to be the largest no-escape zone among air-to-air missiles.
The cutting-edge propulsion system also enables the Meteor to conserve fuel during the initial phase of flight, adjust thrust as needed, and maintain endurance and range for extended engagements. The Meteor functions more like a small air-to-air cruise missile than a traditional rocket-propelled missile with a sophisticated thrust modulation mechanism that enables fine control throughout its flight.
The missile can also adjust its performance in a variety of tactical contexts during combat situations. It maintains a high velocity throughout its flight and dynamically controls its energy to be extremely effective in both close and distant combat. This feature enhances the Meteor’s agility and targeting accuracy against agile and evasive adversaries, making it more deadly.
In addition to Typhoons, the Meteor missiles can be carried on Gripen and Rafale aircraft and are being integrated into F-35 Lightning II and Korea Airspace Industries KF-21.
This explains why Greece has taken an exception to the missile ending up in Turkey’s hands. The sale of this missile to Turkey depends on the approval of all the members of the MBDA consortium. And, Greece has sounded the bugle on its opposition and communicated to France that it expects a veto.
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