S-400 Training for Turkey's Military Personnel Begins

Turkey's Air Force personnel has begun training for S-400 missile defense systems in Russia.

İstanbul

S-400 Training for Turkey's Military Personnel Begins

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The Ministry of Defense has announced that the training of Turkey's military personnel for the S-400 missile systems have begun in Russia.

"S-400 training started in Gatchina, Russia with the participation of Air Force Command personnel as part of long-range air-and-missile defense system project," the Ministry said today (August 4) in a tweet.

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Ankara received the first batch of missiles in July. The delivery of the first battery was completed on July 25.

The second batch of equipment of the S-400 was received on August 27, and the delivery is slated to continue for around one month, according to the Defense Ministry.

Turkey signed a contract with Russia in April 2017 to acquire the S-400 anti-missile systems.

Opposing deployment of the Russian system, U.S. officials argued that they would be incompatible with the NATO systems and expose its fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet to Russia.

What is the S-400?

It is a short, middle and long-range air defense missile system, the second generation after the S-300s.

It can destroy tactical planes, strategic bombers, ballistic missiles, hypersonic targets and all other modern air weapons. The system can monitor 300 targets simultaneously and can ready its missiles to launch in three minutes.

The Russian Armed Forces put the S-400s into service in 2007. China and Belarus later integrated the missiles into their air defense systems. Turkey has become the fourth country to own the S-400s.

(RT/VK)

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