Turkey may no longer need the S-400 missile system

In his latest for Bloomberg, Selcan Hacaoglu writes that Turkey may soon have no need for the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system which had fractured the country’s relationship with the US.

In late 2017, Ankara signed an agreement with the Kremlin for delivery of the S-400 defense system, which the US said posed a risk to its own jets and was incompatible with the NATO system. Turkey’s purchase of advanced Russian weaponry despite being a NATO member was perceived as rapprochement with Putin.

Following the purchase, the US had suspended Turkey from the F-35 program and had passed economic sanctions, which exacerbated the already strained relationship between the two countries.

Now, according to the Bloomberg report, Haluk Gorgun, chairman of the defense equipment manufacturer Aselsan Elektronik Sanayi has reported that Turkey is developing its own Siper air defense system that will allow the country to be self-sufficient.

Gorgun says, “We are making air defense systems. We don’t need S-300s, S-400s. We are eliminating the need for them. This is our duty.”

Hacaoglu writes that the development is in line with President Erodgan’s “increasingly assertive foreign policy backed with homegrown military power.”