Turkey gets fresh S-400 shipment as US mulls sanctions

Turkey says a fresh shipment of Russian S-400 missile defense systems has arrived in the country, a day after it received the first batch of the systems.

“Delivery of S-400 Long Range Air and Missile Defense Systems resumed today,” the Turkish Defense Ministry tweeted on Saturday.

It said that a fourth Russian cargo plane had landed at the Murted air base near the capital Ankara, a day after three huge Russian air force AN-124 planes offloaded equipment at the base.

The delivery is likely to anger the US, which has long warned that Turkey cannot have both the S-400 and American F-35 stealth fighter jets.

The US claims the S-400 systems are incompatible with NATO equipment and expose the F-35s to possible Russian subterfuge.

Washington is expected to level sanctions against Ankara under the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which mandates US sanctions against anyone making a significant deal with the Russian defense industry. 

The US has already halted deliveries of F-35 to Turkey and suspended the training of Turkish pilots to fly the aircraft.

Turkey, however, says it has conducted technical studies on the compatibility of the S-400s and the F-35s and had found no issues of concern as alleged by the US.

It also stresses that the S-400 is a strategic defense requirement, above all to secure its southern borders.

On Friday, Acting US Defense Secretary Mark Esper held a telephone conversation with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

“Minister Akar told his US counterpart that Turkey remains under a serious air and missile threat and that purchase of S-400 defense systems was not an option but rather a necessity,” a Turkish Defense Ministry statement said.

Akar, it added, emphasized that Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 “does not in any way mean change of its strategic orientation.”

SS