In the coming years, Turkey will develop its own analogue of the Russian S-400 Triumph air defense system, the Turkish daily Milliyet writes, citing a statement by the head of the country's defense industry department, Ismail Demir.
"Now we have HISAR A+ and HISAR O+ air defense systems with a range of up to 20 kilometers. We will create an air defense system with a range of up to 100 kilometers. After that, we will increase these indicators in the SIPER system. We are gradually moving towards creating an analogue of the S-400," the official said.
According to experts interviewed by the publication, the S-400 Triumph is not enough for Turkey. "We bought the S-400 to defend against both aerial targets flying from afar and ballistic missiles. We need to build a system of ballistic missile interceptors at the expense of national resources and at the local level," said one of the Turkish analysts.
In August 2020, Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheev announced during the Army 2020 forum that Russia and Turkey had signed a contract for the supply of the second regiment of S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems.
In July of the same year, Demir said that the costs of the program for the creation of American F-35 Lightning II fighters after the exclusion of Turkish contractors from it would increase by $ 600 million and lead to an increase in the price of each such aircraft by $ 7-9 million. Ankara was excluded because of the purchase of the S-400 Triumph from Moscow.
Ivan Potapov