Kürecik Radar Station () is a military installation located in the town of in

Malatya Province Malatya Province (; ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is 12,259 km2, and its population is 812,580 (2022). It is part of a larger mountainous area. Th ...

, southeastern Turkey. It was established in 2012 for use by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

as an

early-warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum tim ...

against ballistic missile attacks.

Background

At the NATO Lisbon summit in November 2010, a strategic plan was concluded to establish a

ballistic missile defense Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and also the destruction of attacking missiles. Conceived as a defense against nuclear weapon, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic mi ...

system covering all alliance members. As a

member state, the

government of Turkey The Government of Turkey () is the Central government, national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential system, presidential representative democracy and a Constitution of Turkey, constitutional republic wit ...

approved the installation of an early-warning radar system on its territory, but insisted on a condition that all the information gathered at the radar station would be strictly for use by the NATO member states. After signing an agreement on final conditions in September 2011, officials from Turkey and the U.S. determined a site near the town of Kürecik in the Akçadağ district of Malatya Province as feasible. In the 1960s, the site hosted a radar base for surveillance of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

airspace. In the 1970s and early 1980s it was staffed by a small US Air Force contingent and used as a communications relay site connecting Incirlik CDI with Diyarbakir and Erhaç air bases. Site security was provided by the Turkish military during those years as well. Kürecik is located west of

Malatya Malatya (; ; Syriac language, Syriac ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city has been a human settlement for thousands of y ...

. The radar station is situated on the hill of Çat Tepe at an elevation of .

Controversy

The residents of Kürecik and many others from the region expressed their opposition and mounted protests right after the announcement of the radar site. In September 2011, Iran criticized Turkey for the establishment of the early-warning radar in southeastern Turkey, fearing it would serve to protect Israel from Iranian missile attacks in case of a war. On October 17, 2023, it is reported that civilians headed in mass to the Kürecik Radar Station to protest an alleged Israeli bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in

Gaza City Gaza City, also called Gaza, is a city in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Gaza Governorate. Located on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Jerusalem, it was home to Port of Gaza, Palestine's only port. With a population of ...

. Both Israel and the

Palestinian Islamic Jihad The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), commonly known simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organization formed in 1981. PIJ formed as an offsh ...

deny responsibility for the explosion.

Installation and operation

The installation of the radar system was carried out by U.S. military personnel. The establishment of the radar station was completed in February 2012. The radar station's control was transferred to NATO command in the frame of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). The installed radar is an Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance (

AN/TPY-2 The AN/TPY-2 Surveillance Transportable Radar, also called the Forward Based X-Band Transportable (FBX-T) is a long-range, very high-altitude active digital antenna array X band surveillance radar designed to add a tier to existing missile and a ...

), a Forward-Based X-Band Transportable (FBX-T) surveillance radar developed by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, featuring long-range, very high-altitude

active electronically scanned array An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled antenna array in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the a ...

. The radar site's command center is at Diyarbakır Air Base east of Kürecik. The Kürecik radar station's mission is to relay tracking and discrimination data to a remote missile defense system, the

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in th ...

(THAAD), stationed in Romania and Poland. Radar range data varies widely as the AN/TPY-2 is used both in forward-based and terminal-based modes. The Kürecik radar as a forward-based radar is deployed in a reasonable proximity to the assumed missile launch site. Kürecik's distance to the Iran-Turkey border is about . About 50 U.S. soldiers were deployed to the radar station for protection and internal security. The Turkish government did not allow foreign civilian technicians at the site for intelligence concerns. Turkey took the responsibility for the external protection of the radar site, which is situated in an isolated region, against sabotage attacks. A team of the

Engineer Research and Development Center The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is a US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) research and laboratory organization. The main facility is located in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the site of an antecedent organization, the Waterways ...

's (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) from the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

provided technical solutions for the military personnel stationed at the high-elevation Kürecik radar site, where harsh weather conditions occur in winter time. The early-warning radar is owned by the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

, and operated by the U.S. Army Europe (11th Missile Defense Battery, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade,

10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command The 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command (10th AAMDC) is a theater level Army air and missile defense organization and directly subordinated to United States Army Europe. On order, the 10th AAMDC deploys worldwide to conduct joint and comb ...

References

{{Turkey–United States relations Military installations of the United States in Turkey NATO installations in Turkey Military installations established in 2012 2012 establishments in Turkey Military in Malatya Buildings and structures in Malatya Province Akçadağ

Background

Controversy

Installation and operation

See also

References