With Trump in power, can Turkey find its way back into the F-35 program?
Analysts told Breaking Defense the S-400 and sanctions present significant hurdles, but they’re not impossible to overcome.
Analysts told Breaking Defense the S-400 and sanctions present significant hurdles, but they’re not impossible to overcome.
"They will have to decide what costs them more: to lose one or more of these A-50s or to continue to see their combat aircraft and S-400 units progressively degraded," a Ukrainian expert told Breaking Defense.
According to Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov, the Neptune preformed “flawlessly” during the Aug. 23 attack on a Russian Almaz-Antei S-400 “Triumf” air and missile defense complex.
While a Turkish industry official claimed the country didn’t “need” the Russian systems, experts say a replacement has a little ways to go to catch other operational domestic variants.
“No one can definitely say that Turkey wouldn’t buy the second batch,” one Ankara insider said. “But for now, it isn’t on the agenda.”
Russian and Chinese international weapon sales are continuing on a downward trend from last year's report.
The Russian-Belarusian exercise may be over, but its biggest question - what Russian forces stay behind in Belarus - will now be answered.
If Saudi Arabia want to send a signal to Washington without really endangering the American-Saudi security relationship, they'll limit their arms deals with Russia to smaller - or even token - orders of relatively benign equipment.
"The Saudis might be demonstrating that they can go to other sources and solutions for air defense through building on the worsening of US-Turkish relations, at the heart of which is US unhappiness over Turkish acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defense system,” Yezid Sayegh, senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, says.
“It’s been a moral hazard to fail to implement CAATSA over the last 18 months, but better late than never," said Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The Trump Administration has made it clear that they’ll put lethal weaponry in just about anyone’s hands without regard to potential loss of life so long as the check clears,” Rep. Eliot Engel says.
Earlier this month, two senators -- a Republican and Democrat -- wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling on the administration to sanction Turkey after the S-400's radar was turned on.
The first signs of dissatisfaction with the Russian air defense systems came on May 1 when the Syria Direct website ran a story quoting what was described as a Syrian military source who criticized the S-300 air defense systems supplied by Russia.
Moscow is making sure no one forgets the role it has played in the Middle East, while Beijing searches for inroads in a region President Trump has pledged to leave.