Russia is ready to supply cutting-edge S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Turkey, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin said in reply to a question from the head of the Anadolu news agency at a press conference:
“We discussed the possibility of selling S-400 systems. We are ready for this. As for cooperation, this is a separate issue related to the Turkish industry’s readiness. We do not produce such hardware anywhere abroad so far.
This has been going on for decades and therefore, requires large-scale technological preparation and personnel training but in principle, there is nothing impossible. We are ready for the deliveries of these newest and most effective systems. President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan knows about this and our military knows and the Turkish military knows too.”
Lacking such hardware of its own, Turkey has to rely on other NATO members and was angered by the US decision to withdraw Patriot missiles from Turkey’s border with Syria, which had been deployed to protect Turkey from an attack.
According to the CEO of Rostec Corporation Sergey Chemezov, Turkey is ready to buy the S-400 Triumph with a loan if it’s granted by Moscow.
The S-400 Triumf is an anti-aircraft weapon system developed in the 1990s and has been in service with the Russian Armed Forces since 2007. The S-400 uses four missiles to fill its performance envelope: the very-long-range 40N6 (400km), the long-range 48N6 (250km), the medium-range 9M96E2 (120km) and the short-range 9M96E (40km).
The S-400 has been described, as of 2017, as “one of the best air-defence systems currently made.”
Great news. I suspect the Turks will lose one within a few years.
Why would the Russians do this unless Turkey is flirting with leaving NATO and forming an alliance with them? Why would Russia give NATO unfettered access to its best SAM system? Either the Russians are mad or they’re up to something.
Are you sure Russia is the problem ? I wouldnt trust Turkey as far as i could throw them. How many Russian deaths are they responsible for ? Why is fellow NATO member Germany moving it’s military assets to Jordan ? Are they still threatening the EU with mass illegal immigration despite knowing that ISIS are hiding among the genuine refugees ?
It takes two to form an alliance… The S-400 is the most significant Russian conventional weapon system since the Backfire bomber. There’s no way they would sell it to a NATO country unless that country was about to change sides. Perhaps they would sell us some of their nasty supersonic SSMs for our frigates? ?