Turkey says NATO deploying more defences to guard southern base

ANKARA, March 18 (Reuters) - NATO is deploying another U.S. Patriot missile defence system to the southern Turkish province of Adana, where personnel from the United States and other countries are located in the Incirlik Air Base, Turkey's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.

Turkey, which has NATO's second-largest army and neigbhbours Iran, said last week the alliance had deployed a Patriot system to its southeastern Malatya province, near a NATO radar base, as part of steps to boost air defences against missile threats from the Iran war.

Adana hosts Turkey's Incirlik Air Base, where personnel from the United States, Qatar, Spain, and Poland are located, as well as Turkish troops.

"In addition to national-level measures taken to ensure the security of our airspace and our citizens, another Patriot system, commissioned by Allied Air Command in Ramstein/Germany, is being deployed in Adana, in addition to the existing Spanish Patriot system stationed there," the ministry said at a weekly briefing.

Turkey, an emerging leader in the global defence industry, lacks its own fully fledged air defences despite development efforts, and has relied on NATO air defences stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to intercept three missiles it says were fired from Iran since the war began.