Turkey Discloses Further Problems With Russian-made S-400 Air Defense System

Turkey faces multitudes of technical glitches, defects and performance issues with the Russian-made S-400 air defense systems learned GDC quoting Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah.

The performance issues and defects are significant enough for Turkish President to address these issues at a summit with his Russian counterpart on March 5, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the plan remains for the S-400s to be fully deployed later this year.

Despite the fact that the Turkish president promised to take the Russian Triumph S-400 air defense systems on alert by the beginning of April, these combat systems have not yet been deployed. As it turned out, Turkey faced some problems and postponed the commissioning of Russian-made air defense systems indefinitely.

The S-400s, the first shipment of which arrived in Turkey in July 2019, have not yet been activated. Cavusoglu didn’t say whether the Russian military hardware would be made operational later this month, as expected. 

The Turkish authorities decided to postpone the introduction of Russian-made air defense systems into operation, an unnamed Turkish official said, referred to by the media. At the same time, the article indicates that Turkey is not going to completely abandon the deployment of the S-400 air defense system, as the United States wants.

Washington has already imposed certain sanctions against Ankara for having concluded a contract with Russia for the supply of air defense systems. In Turkey, they make it clear that the adoption of such measures has now been suspended, but the military will return to the process of preparing Russian systems for operation once the defects are rectified by Almaz-Antey, the original manufacturer of the systems.

Russian media Avia.Pro reported that Russian experts visited Turkish base where the system is stored and made numerous failed attempts to activate the system.

This is one of the reasons US sanctioned Turkey that during the life cycle of S-400, Russian engineers will gain access to Turkish military bases. This is exactly what happened this year when Russian engineers traveled to Turkey to activate the system.

Turkish frustration and disappointment with the S-400 system have grown to that level,–one defense ministry officials said in Turkish media that we should have read the return policy of S-400 air defense system.

At the moment, the Turkish Ministry of Defense does not further comment on the reasons for the delayed commissioning of the Russian S-400, although earlier it became known about the unsuccessful testing of these systems.

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