Andreas Papadopulos 
Andreas Papadopulos 𝕏🔁 @[email protected]:
📌 Bloomberg reports today that #Turkey is in talks with #Italy to buy and co-produce SAMP/T batteries from Eurosam. The Iran threat is the immediate trigger, but the story has a longer arc. 🇹🇷 🇮🇹
Turkey signed a preliminary agreement with Eurosam in 2018 — involving Aselsan, Roketsan, Thales, Leonardo and MBDA — for the co-development of long-range air defense systems. It stalled after Operation Peace Spring in 2019, with France blocking on political grounds. The S-400 has not resolved Turkey's air defense gap: it remains incompatible with NATO systems and cannot integrate into the Steel Dome, Ankara's national layered air defense architecture.
Since then, Turkey has increasingly tried to penetrate the European defense industry. Italy has been the most consequential partner: Baykar and Leonardo established LBA Systems, a 50/50 unmanned systems joint venture, and Baykar acquired Piaggio Aerospace. But the pattern extends beyond bilateral ties, with partnerships accumulating across the broader European defense industry.
France's reported openness to the deal is likely not incidental to this. Turkey is no longer knocking on the door as an outsider — it is already embedded in the industrial architecture that Eurosam depends on and builds on that. Italy's institutional stake likely makes it a more credible guarantor, which changes the political calculus for Paris.
Whether the 2018 agreement can serve as the basis for a revived deal remains to be seen.