The Turkish S-400s cannot yet fire at long distances.
The Russian S-400 air defense systems have not been put into service with Turkish Army. The S-400 has not been able to take up combat duty due to the technical defect and lack of long-range anti-aircraft guided missiles that allow them to intercept targets at a long ranges.
It is this factor that restrains Turkey from selling Russian S-400 to the United States or adopting them for service, since with current missiles, the effective range of fire is limited to a distance of 200-250 kilometres.
As noted by the Chinese news publication SOHU, a similar situation had developed earlier with the supply of Russian air defense weapons to Chinese Army – Russia delivered the S-400 on time, however, long-range missiles for them were not transferred to China’s yet.
It should be noted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously announced that the S-400 would be adopted by the country in April of this year, however, for six months this process did not move, and therefore Ankara is suspected selling Russian S-400 to the United States, and, in all likelihood, together with long-range Russian missiles.
Earlier, Ankara confirmed current negotiation to the sale of S-400 air defense system to the United States.
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