Turkey in talks with Russia for advanced S-500 missile defence system
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MOSCOW - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara has had talks with Moscow over Russia’s S-500 surface-to-air missile defense systems, announcing that Turkey has also no “problem” with the Kremlin over its previous deal on receiving batteries of S-400 systems.
“In our talks with [Russia President Vladimir] Putin we are not thinking of stopping with the S-400s. We have had talks on the S-500s too,” said the Turkish leader at a press conference upon his return from Ukraine and Serbia on Friday.
The S-500 air shield systems are currently under development by Russian manufacturer Almaz-Antey, and will enter service in the coming years. The systems are said to be able to simultaneously detect and destroy up to 10 ballistic missiles at speeds of up to 7 kilometers per second, as well as aircraft, helicopters and cruise missiles, within a radius of 600 kilometers.
Erdogan added that Turkey would “take joint production steps” of the S-400 systems as soon as it received the second batch of the advanced air shield from Russia.
The Turkish leader’s comments came a month after Ankara and Moscow reached an agreement on the delivery of the S-400 systems to Turkey. At the time, Erdogan said a deposit had already been paid for two batteries of the advanced missile systems.
Under the deal, Russia would send two S-400 systems to Turkey within the next year and then help the country domestically produce two more batteries. The deal is said to be worth around $2.5 billion.
