Seven years to think about: the contract for the supply of Russian air defense systems was signed by Ankara with Moscow even before the start of a full-scale invasion, and the installations even managed to be delivered to Turkey. And then – something went wrong?
Turkey is ready to give up the Russian S-400 systems in favor of new American fighters. The country wants to purchase the new generation of F-35 fighter jets from the United States in order to gain an advantage over the Greek aviation.
In the course of negotiations on the return to the F-35 supply program, Ankara told Washington that it would not activate the purchased from of the Russian side of the S-400 air defense system
In the course of negotiations on returning to the F-35 delivery program, Ankara told Washington that it would not activate the S-400 air defense systems purchased from the Russian side in order to purchase military aircraft. Turkey purchased these complexes from the Russian Federation for $2.5 billion, but they were never put into operation and are still stored in Turkish warehouses.
In 2017, Moscow and Ankara signed a contract for the supply of S-400 systems for the amount of $2.5 billion. Washington sought to prevent this agreement and even excluded Turkey from the program to supply the latest F-35 fighters. However, this did not help: the missile systems were delivered to Turkey in the summer of 2019.
Last spring, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said that Ankara's purchase of the S-400 – it's a “long-standing problem” and “maybe the moment has come when we can find a way to solve this problem”.