Turkey has accepted to buy Russian S-400 air defense missile systems.

According to the News AM website, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday February 5, 2018, stated that Russia had accepted Turkey’s proposals regarding the purchase of the S-400 air defense systems, TASS news agency reported. “Russia agreed to Ankara [proposals regarding] both in the price and the deadlines for the supply of anti-missile complexes, as well as in the establishment and transfer of a joint production of technology,” he said. In the president’s words, however, Turkey plans to manufacture its own missile defense systems.

S-400 air defense system (Picture source: Army Recognition)

Almost nine years ago, in April 2009 during IDEF exhibition in Istanbul, Rosoboronexport had released that the Turkish government had expressed strong interest in the acquisition of S-400 air defense systems.

The S-400 Triumph SA-21 is a long range surface-to-air missile systems produced by Almaz-Antey. The S-400 Trumph is intended to engage, ECM, radar-picket, director area, reconnaissance, strategic and tactical aircraft, tactical and theatre ballistic missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles and other current and future air attack assets at a maximum range of 400 km, and a altitude of up to 30 km.

The S-400 Triumph can also intended Tomahawk cruise missiles and other types of missiles, including precision-guided ones, as well as AWACS aircraft, at ranges of up to 400 km. It can also detect stealth aircraft and other targets at all altitudes of their combat employment and at maximum ranges.

This air defense missile system can simultaneously engage 36 targets.

Work of the development of the S-400 Triumph air defense missile system is a visible embodiment of cooperation among weapons developers. Besides the Almaz Central Design Bureau, these include leading enterprises of the Russian Defence industry, such as the Fakel Machine-Building Design Bureau, the Novosibirsk Research Institute of Measuring Instruments, the Saint-Petersburg Special Machine-Building Design Bureau, and a number of others.

A regular S-400 battalion reportedly consists of at least eight launchers with 32 missiles and a mobile command post. The principal distinctions between the S-400 and its predecessor lie in further refinements to the radar and software, and the addition of four new missile types in addition to the legacy 48N6E/48N6E2 used in the S-300PMU2 Favorit.

The S-400 entered service with the Russian Armed Forces on April 28, 2007, replacing the S-300 air defense system. The Russian Army plans call for the fielding of 18 battalions by 2020 as the backbone of its surface-to-air missile capabilities. Belarus is set to become the first export customer.