ANKARA, December 24. /TASS/. Ankara’s possible purchase of US-made Patriot missile systems will not impact its deal with Russia to buy S-400 missile systems, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told a news conference on Monday.
"The deal on S-400 is closed. The first systems will be supplied in October 2019. The offer on Patriot will change nothing because we don’t consider them as alternatives to one another. We can have both systems," he said.
A source in the Turkish foreign ministry told TASS earlier that Turkey would use S-400 systems separately from NATO’s systems "and in a manner that will help preserve sensitive information concerning the F-35 aircraft."
It was reported on December 18 that the US administration had made a decision to sell Patriot surface-to-air missile systems worth $3.5 billion to Turkey. The permission was obtained for the sale of 80 Patriot MIM-104E surface-to-air missiles and 60 PAC-3 missiles and the corresponding equipment.
On the following day, Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that the purchase of Patriot systems would not tell on Moscow’s agreement with Ankara on supplies of S-400 missile systems.
The media reported in November 2016 that talks were underway on possible sales of Russian S-400 systems to Turkey. The Russian side confirmed that the contract had been signed in September 2017. Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that deployment of the S-400 systems would begin in October 2019. In December 2017, CEO of Russia’s Rostec corporation Sergei Chemezov said the contract cost was 2.5 billion dollars.
Russia’s S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) is the latest long-range antiaircraft missile system that went into service in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles, and surface targets. The system can hit aerodynamic targets at a range of up to 400 kilometers (249 miles) and tactical ballistic targets flying at a speed of 4.8 km/s (3 mi/s) at a distance of up to 60 kilometers (37 miles). Such targets include cruise missiles, tactical and strategic aircraft and ballistic missile warheads.
The system’s radars detect aerial targets at a distance of up to 600 kilometers (373 miles). The system’s 48N6E3 surface-to-air missiles can hit aerodynamic targets at altitudes of 10,000-27,000 meters and ballistic threats at altitudes of 2,000-25,000 meters.