New PATRIOT air defense missile systems arrive in Turkey to defend Turkey's border with Syria 100115.

Authorities began to unload the missiles from the military ships that came from Spain and which Turkey ordered to defend itself against potential attacks from the south.

The Patriot batteries will be deployed at Incirlik 10th Tanker Base Command located in the southern province of Adana.

In September, Spain decided to send Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey to replace withdrawing units from the Netherlands as part of NATO assistance.

The U.S., Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries in 2012 to bolster Turkish air defense in response to a request from Ankara for NATO assistance.

Six Patriot missile batteries are operating under NATO command and control in southern Turkey. The Alliance rapidly deployed these assets in order to augment Turkey's air defence capabilities to defend the population and territory of Turkey.

Two Dutch Patriot batteries are operating in Adana, two German batteries are in Kahramanmaras and two batteries from the United States are located in Gaziantep. Together, these Patriot batteries are actively defending 3.5 million people in Turkey against missile attacks.

January 7, 2015, Germany's cabinet agreed to keep two German Patriot missile batteries in southern Turkey for another year, where they are deployed as part of a NATO mission to defend Turkey's border with Syria.

The mandate, which needs approval from parliament, allows a maximum of 400 German soldiers to serve in NATO-member Turkey until January 2016.

The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied nations. Patriot uses an advanced aerial interceptor missile and high performance radar systems. The Patriot missile had a range of 70 km, and a speed in excess of Mach 3.