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Several US security partners have, for a while now, shown interest in procuring the Russian S-400 Triumf missile defense system.
Turkey is the most prominent example, as it has already received both of its shipments of S-400 systems. The first one was completed ahead of schedule in mid-July, while the second one was completed on September 15th. Both S-400 batteries would go active in April 2020, the Turkish defense ministry said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusglu told an interview with CNN Turk that both systems would be activated, despite the US warnings.
“They (U.S. officials) told us ‘don’t activate them and we can sort this out’, but we told them that we didn’t buy these systems as a prop,” Cavusoglu said.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Reuters he will discuss buying U.S. Patriot missiles with U.S. President Donald Trump this month, saying his personal bond with the U.S. leader could overcome the crisis caused by the S-400s.
Trump and Erdogan are both at the 74th UN General Assembly, but there’s been no reports regarding conversations between the leaders, after they failed to meet.
In response to Turkey’s actions, the US removed it from the F-35 joint strike fighter program, and the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that sanctions were under consideration.
Other than that, India expressed interest in the S-400 in October 2015. The Indian Defense Acquisition Council was given the greenlight to procure the missile defense system in December of the same year.
Fast forward through some trials and tribulations and in October 2018 a formal deal was signed for the delivery of 5 S-400 batteries for $5.5 billion, with an estimated completed delivery by 2023.
In September 2019, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said that the first batch of the S-400 would be delivered in March 2021.
The US warned India over purchasing the S-400 and that it would be to the detriment of bilateral relations.
U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice Wells said in an official testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on June 13 that the purchase of the S-400 defense systems could limit burgeoning India-U.S. military relations.
Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia are also negotiating on the purchase of S-400 systems, despite also having US F-35 fighter jets.
Both countries, as of latest reports from March 2019 for Qatar and February 2019 for the Kingdom are negotiating with Russia for the missile defense systems.
The US has simply warned that relations would be damaged if the systems were purchased. Turkey was specifically thrown out of the F-35 joint strike fighter program for purchasing the “incompatible” S-400 system. There is yet no conclusive information on whether Qatar and Saudi Arabia would purchase the S-400, thus there is yet no need for a harsher rhetoric from the Trump Administration.
The interest in the S-400, and the more modern Russian missile defense systems is only to increase. After all, on September 14th, numerous missiles and drones made it through several Patriot missile defense systems and heavily damaged Aramco’s oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo played it down, saying that “all missile defense systems sometimes fail,” but the facts are quite showing.
The Patriot defense system’s failure is to the great benefit of the Russian systems, which, so far, appear to be working sufficiently well, judging by the continuous unsuccessful attempts to attack the Hmeimim Air Base in Syria via drones.
Provided is an infographic by the “Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,” outlining the progress each US Security Partner has made in procuring S-400 missile defense systems.
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