Pursuing the Obstacle of “Meteor” to Turkey: Macron’s Rejection to Mitsotakis!
Greece’s effort to convince France to prevent the sale of “Meteor missiles to Turkey did not yield results. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis did not find what he hoped for in the meeting in Paris. According to the Greek press, Mitsotakis received a rejection answer in response to his request not to sell Meteor missiles to Turkey during his meeting with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris earlier this week.
According to a report in the Greek newspaper EFSYN titled “French Meteorite,” Macron’s response to Mitsotakis’s request to refrain from selling Meteor missiles to Turkey was that there was no possibility of preventing the sale of Meteors. The French side informed Mitsotakis that it was not possible because Meteor is produced by a consortium of six participating countries.
GREECE TO CONTINUE ITS EFFORTS
The news, based on unnamed sources, indicated that Greece aimed to approach the governments of other countries participating in the consortium to prevent the possible sale of missiles to Ankara. Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias had expressed his concern to France’s Ambassador to Athens, Laurance Auer, on January 29 about reports that Greece was uncomfortable with the idea of Meteor missiles being sold to Turkey. The Meteor missile, in the beyond-visual-range air-to-air class, is produced by the France-based MBDA. In addition to France, the consortium includes the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.
WHAT IS METEOR MISSILE?
The Meteor missile is a state-of-the-art Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile developed primarily by MBDA in cooperation with several European countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. The missile is equipped with a unique solid-fueled ramjet engine that provides continuous thrust during its flight. This design contributes to speeds exceeding Mach 4 and a wide No Escape Zone that makes it difficult for targets to evade. The Meteor missile has an operational range exceeding 100 kilometers, but detailed maximum range specifics are not publicly disclosed.
