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Turkey agrees to $2.5 billion deal for four S-400 SAM systems
Turkey has reportedly agreed to a $2.5 billion U.S. deal for four Almaz-Antey S-400 long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems from Russia.
In its report, Bloomberg cites a Turkish official stating that the “agreement sees Turkey receiving two S-400 batteries from Russia within the next year, and then producing another two inside Turkey.”
Rosonboronexport is currently unable to confirm the deal, though the matter of Turkey and Russia nearing a contract and negotiating pricing was confirmed by Russian officials at the end of June.
In response to the reports of Turkish industry involvement in the S-400, Russian analysts are unconvinced that the deal involves replicating the S-400 in Turkey. One told Bloomberg that Turkey “would have to spend billions to create a whole new industry” to “copy the S-400 system.”
However, the Turkish Undersecretariat of Defence Industries (SSM) did commission the local development of a long-range SAM in parallel to import talks. It had seemed that Ankara was also working to link the S-400 purchase to Russian technical support for the Turkish SAM program.
Turkey expressed interest in the S-400 in November 2016, following a thaw in relations between Ankara and Moscow following the Su-24 downing crisis. Talks took place in February and March. In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that talks were in the final stages.
The S-400 is a multi-layered SAM system comprising of short, medium and long-range anti-air missiles. Its marquee weapon is the 40N6 missile, which has a range of 400 km. The 40N6 is complemented by the 40 km 9M96E, 120 km 9M96E2 and 250 km 48N6.
It is not known how many of each missile Turkey intends to procure or the specific composition of Turkish S-400 batteries. Additional aspects, such as customization and linkages to other systems built in Turkey, especially radars, are also not known. If inked, Turkey will join China and India as the S-400’s third overseas user and its first NATO user.
13 Comments
by Red Phoenix
Good analysis even though brief. I hope this website will be a Jane’s Defence in some day.
by Ali Afzal
Hope American CIA will not send suicide bombers in Turkey !
by Qasim57
It’s one of the best defence sites from Pakistan, @Bilal Khan has a great depth of knowledge and a great way of presenting things!
by abjectief
“agreement sees Turkey receiving two S-400 batteries from Russia within the next year, and then producing another two inside Turkey.”
“In response to the reports of Turkish industry involvement in the S-400, Russian analysts are unconvinced that the deal involves replicating the S-400 in Turkey. One told Bloomberg that Turkey “would have to spend billions to create a whole new industry” to “copy the S-400 system.”
Sure, it would be rather expensive for Turkey to develope such an industry on its own, for the whole of NATO-defence-industries, it would be peanuts. The opporunity for NATO to test this system against it’s air-assets alone is priceless.
Russia is making a big mistake.
by Abdul Rashid
Yes, Bilal is deservedly winning increasing respect and admiration from Quwa fans. He truly is a defence tech maestro. I hardly ever feel the need to bother with any of the myriad other defence sites covering South Asia defence matters. Quwa is my single point of reference for all the relevant defence news and analysis, objectively and professionally presented while filtering out the “noise” found on other sites.
by Qasim57
Same here 🙂
by Manju
So technically next time a Russian Su24 would be shot down by a Russian S400 instead of Turkish F-16.
by Berat Demir
No, next time an eurofighter typhoon not a su-24
by T-123456
https://www.dailysabah.com/defense/2017/07/14/turkey-joins-italian-french-consortium-eurosam-for-sampt-aster-30-missile-defense-system
by Steve
There are probably going to be no more Turkey/Russia bust ups. Turkey is in NATO but alliances are shifting at a speed not seen for a while. The way Europeans are treating Turkey is not how you treat an ally. After the coup attempt, Erdogan believes the West is out to oust him hence his sudden embrace of Putin. He may play both sides and be coy, at least for a while as Turkey has much to lose, (like F35), if it breaks with NATO. Russia is not really a strong enough alternative, and if it comes to a choice it will still be NATO.
by Mozimma
I think the issue is diffrent from this, nato I.e. the US vehemently opposed turkeys purchase of a chinese system, but had a very muted response to turkey buying a russian system. In reality russia is a spent power it neither has the will or the capabilities to threaten eu It seems nato is trying to tempt russia into a strategic alliance against china
by OSD
I’m not sure if we can write off Russia as a spent power just as yet. It did take a huge bite out of a European country only recently. I think the muted reaction against the Turkish-Russia deal had more to do with the ever increasing divergence between Turkey and the Western powers.
by Halz
Completely disagree. The Russians are not going to sell the most sophisticated S-400 to Turkey. It will be heavily downgraded. On top of that, Russian SAMs have proven to be lethal to even the Russians themselves (remember in Georgia, the Georgians used Tor-M1s to deadly effect against Russian aircraft).
Hell, the US had plenty of practice against Soviet SAMs when it tore up Iraq’s air defense system in ’91, but the Serbs managed to cause quite a bit of trouble using the same exact SAMs just a decade later. And even during Operation Iraqi Freedom back in 2003, the US still lost two aircraft to Iraqi SAMs.