The capabilities of the Russian S-400 are a few, says Ismail Demir

President of Defense Industries (SSB) Ismail Demir together with Daily Sabah's Dilara Aslan at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya province, June 19, 2021 (Daily Sabah Photo)

Head of Turkey’s President of Defense Industries Ismail Demir said on Monday that Turkey could not rely on Russian S-400 missile defense systems, stressing the need to use other weapons to ensure the security of the Turkish airspace, the 24TV channel informs.

“The S-400 is not an integrated weapon with Turkish systems and cannot protect Turkish airspace fully,” the TV channel quotes Mr Demir.

Turkey has been thoroughly studying the S-400 system by the Turkish defense industries, Demir himself stated the need to create an analogue of the Russian S-400.

The President of Defense Industries confirmed reporters that the S-400 system has limited capability in low and medium altitudes.

We do not leave it to the discretion of the S-400. The capabilities of the S-400 are few. By itself, the S-400 air defense system cannot be trusted. For the future of Turkey, we need air defense systems at both low and medium altitudes and at high altitudes. At this stage, a lot of work falls on SSB, said the head of the defense industry in Turkey.

Besides, Ismail Demir informed that Turkish enterprises continued working on developing TF-X fighters after Washington decided to exclude Turkey from this F-35 program.

According to Mr Demir, if Ankara wished to do so, with the information that we get from working with S-400, we plan to reach the S-400 level in our work on creating our own missile defense systems by 2025-2026,” he added.

U.S. President Joe Biden is committed to maintaining sanctions on Turkey under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to buy Russian missile defenses and impose further sanctions if Ankara bought further major arms systems from Moscow, according to a senior U.S. diplomat.

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