July 18, 2019
Russia offers to sell Su-35 jets to Turkey after U.S. ends F-35 deal
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Russia is willing to supply Turkey with Su-35 supersonic multi-purpose fighters if Ankara wants them, the head of Russia's hi-tech conglomerate Rostec Sergei Chemezov said Thursday (July 18), after the United States expelled Turkey from the F-35 program.
"If our Turkish colleagues express a desire, we are ready to work out the delivery of the Su-35," Chemezov was quoted by the Chinese News Agency Xinhua as saying.
According to Military Machine, the Sukhoi Su-35, designated as ‘Flanker-E’ by NATO, is a Russian-made single seat, twin-engine multirole fighter. It is based on the previous existing design of the Su-27 Flanker. The Su-35 entered service in 2007 and has proven itself a very capable adversary to the current generation of American-made fighters such as the F-15 Eagle, the F-18, and even the F-35 Lightning II.
On Wednesday, the White House confirmed in a statement that Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems has led to the termination of Ankara's involvement in the F-35 program.
It noted that the F-35 jets cannot coexist with the S-400 system, arguing that its intelligence collection platform would be used to learn about the advanced capabilities of the F-35 stealth fighters.
Turkey has ordered more than 100 of the F-35 fighter jets, spending US$1.4 billion while its defense industry has invested significant sums into the warplanes’ production.
Turkish reaction
Turkey called unfair the US move. “It is unfair to remove Turkey, one of the partners in the F-35 program,” the ministry said, as it dismissed claims the Russian S-400 system would be a danger to the F-35s.
“This one-sided step neither complies with the spirit of alliance nor is it based on legitimate reasons,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
“We invite the US to take back this error which will pave the way to irreparable damage to our strategic relations,” the Turkish ministry added.
The US-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter “cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities”, White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said.
In December 2017, Ankara and Moscow signed a 2.5-billion-U.S.-dollar agreement for two batteries of the S-400 system, which is considered the most advanced of its kind in Russia, capable of destroying targets at a distance of up to 400 km and a height of up to 30 km.
The first delivery of the S-400 system from Russia began last week and further equipment has since been arriving every day by plane to an airbase in Ankara.
Relations between the Nato allies have deteriorated since Ankara’s purchase from Russia but there have been strains over multiple issues including US support to a Syrian Kurdish militia viewed as terrorists by Turkey.
The Turkish ministry called on the US to show the importance of the Ankara-Washington relationship “not just through words but through action and especially in the fight against terrorist organizations.”
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking at the Aspen Institute’s annual security forum in Aspen, Colorado, said he was concerned at Turkey’s expulsion from the F-35 program.
But while the S-400 could not become part of Nato’s shared air and missile defenses, he said, Turkey has aircraft and radars that would remain part of the system.
“The S-400, the Russian air defense system, it’s not possible to integrate into the integrated Nato air defence and missile system, which is about sharing, you know, radar picture, about joint air policing, which is about shared capabilities. And Turkey has not asked for that,” Stoltenberg said.
Reasons for US furious reaction!
The Irish journalist, Finian Cunningham, says the furious reaction in Washington to Turkey’s receipt of the Russian S-400 air defense system is motivated by several factors – all of which spell a heavy blow to US strategic interests.
It is a blow to America’s prestige and presumed power to make lesser nations buckle under its domineering demands, he says adding:
“The way is now open for other countries to follow Turkey’s lead in ordering the Russian defence system. S-400 deals are reportedly being lined up for India and others who will be encouraged by Turkey’s defiance of Washington’s reproaches.
“It has long been suspected by independent aviation experts that the American F-35 is over-rated and vastly over-priced. One jet costs twice as much as an F-16 to buy – yet the supposed “latest generation” fighter jet has been dogged with technical problems and doubts over its performance.
“Furthermore, if other nations follow suit and likewise buy Russia’s S-400, then the US will be compelled, in turn, to cancel more potential orders for the F-35. Given that the development cost for the aircraft is estimated to run into trillions of dollars, the prospect of dwindling sales to other countries is a gloomy one, if not financially disastrous for the US federal government and Pentagon contractors.”
There’s another strategic factor why Washington is reacting furiously to Turkey’s S-400 contract, Cunningham argues: “Turkey is the second-largest military force in the US-led NATO alliance. For Ankara to solidify this massive defense deal with Russia that move totally undermines all the Washington and transatlantic propaganda which seeks to portray Russia as an existential threat to the US and Europe. The real, unstated, purpose of NATO is to prolong the Cold War demonization of Moscow as some kind of “malign power”. If NATO member Turkey trusts Russia to provide it with air defenses, then the whole NATO charade of demonizing Moscow collapses.”
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
Your donation
is tax deductable.
