S-400 Missile defense systems ready for use, Ismail Demir says

F.P Report

ANKARA: Head of Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries Ismail Demir said on Monday that Russian S-400 missile defense systems are ready to be commissioned in Turkey.

Demir stated that “The S-400 are ready for use, the armed forces will decide when such a need arises.”

On the other Presidency of Defense Industries has also confirmed this report saying that “Yes, Ismail Demir did state this in Ankara today.”

Moreover, Demir informed that despite Washington’s decision to exclude Turkey from this program the Turkish enterprises to continue working on the project of developing US F-35 fighters. 

Demir was of the view that if Ankara wished to do so, “a second S-400 regiment would already have been in Turkey today.”

Turkey’s decision to acquire the Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile systems caused a sharply negative reaction from the United States and NATO as a whole.

The United States is not abandoning its attempts to make Turkey give up the Russian air defense systems.

Whereas in October 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remarked that Ankara was not going to give up the S-400 systems despite the US pressure and he also rejected the threats of sanctions and suggested the United States should finally stop threatening Turkey and try to impose them in reality.

He mentioned that “This is what would have happened if we had chosen a quick and easy path, but we aim for the maximum. 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.”

It should be noted that in 2017, Russia and Turkey signed a deal on the delivery of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Ankara.

Turkey was the first NATO state to purchase those systems from Russia.