U.S. Faces Serious Dilemma as Turkey Tests Russian-Supplied S-400s Against American F-16 Jets

Source: Military Watch

July 9 2020

Following the delivery of its first unit of S-400 air defence systems in 2019, Turkey has continued to test the platforms and is reportedly considering placing a followup order from Russia for further battalions. The Turkish armed forces are reported to have carried out new tests of the S-400 which have used U.S. made F-16 and F-4 fighters to assess the capabilities of the system’s sensors. Turkey is the largest foreign operator of the F-16, and was previously set to replace them with F-35A stealth fighters before Washington evicted it from the fifth generation fighter program in 2019. The S-400 was designed to be able to guide up to 160 surface to air missiles against up to 160 targets simultaneously, and can detect non-stealthy enemy aircraft up to 600km away and engage them up to 250km away - a range which can be extended to 400km if equipped with 40N6E missiles. The system was developed largely with high end American F-22 and B-2 stealth aircraft in mind, both of which are considerably harder to lock on to than the F-35, and this makes locking onto the old and non-stealthy F-16 a very basic task for the air defence systems.

Turkey’s move to test the S-400s comes despite considerable Western threats, from the United States in particular, of repercussions including economic sanctions if it activates the Russian-supplied systems. Turkey’s decision to purchase the S-400 has come as a major embarrassment to Western arms manufacturers, and has highlighted the considerable discrepancy in the field of mobile multirole air defence systems favouring Russian technology over that of the U.S. and Europe. A number of countries have shown considerable interest in the S-400 system including Morocco, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Vietnam, with Belarus, China and Algeria already operating the system and India having placed a very large order worth over $5 billion dollars. The U.S. has attempted to gain a greater market share for its own and other Western weapons producers by threatening potential clients for the system with economic sanctions, which in the case of Iraq, Morocco and other Western-aligned states is likely to prove decisive in preventing them from acquiring the system. The U.S. is currently caught between the need to make an example of Turkey with harsh sanctions to deter other countries from buying the S-400, and the need to avoid alienating Ankara which could go on to purchase Russian fighter jets and more S-400 systems if treated in an overly hostile manner. This has left Washington in a serious dilemma regarding how to handle its relations with Turkey, which has shown a strong interest in Russian S-500 air defences systems and Su-57 next generation fighter jets and could quickly move to acquire both of them.