On July 16, Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Tina Kaidanow announced that the United States was discussing with Turkey potentially selling the MIM-104 Patriot missile system to the state. This comes as Turkey plans to purchase the S-400 missile defense system from Russia, a deal first announced in September 2017. U.S. officials have confirmed that the United States would sanction Turkey should the nation purchase the system. Local Turkish media, however, reports that officials do not consider the Patriot as an alternative to the S-400.

Turkish officials argue that they decided to purchase the S-400 after NATO allies refused to sell comparable air defenses. As Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has explained, “I tried to buy from my allies […] I wanted to buy from the U.S. for the last 10 years; it didn’t work. I couldn’t buy from NATO allies, so Russia gave me the best proposal. And now I’m buying from Russia.”