Aksenov, who leaded the Russian delegation at the IDEF 2009 exhibition held a press meeting during IDEF and said the possible deliveries of the S-400 to Turkey were discussed during talks with Turkey’s undersecretary for defense industries, Murad Bayar.
He stated that Turkey had shown great interest in buying Russian missile-defense systems and attack helicopters. Russia and Turkey may sign a military technical cooperation agreement after the fair, he said. The volume of trade conducted annually between Russia and Turkey has grown to over $40 billion but the share of this amount going to military technical cooperation between the two countries is very small, he added.
The S-400 Triumf (SA-21 Growler) is designed to intercept and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles), twice the range of the U.S. MIM-104 Patriot, and 2 1/2 times that of Russia’s S-300PMU-2. The system is also believed to be able to destroy stealth aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, and is effective at ranges up to 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) and speeds up to 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) per second.
Russia’s Rosoboronexport will deliver about 800 Kornet-E medium-range anti-tank missile systems to the Turkish army as a stopgap measure while local Roketsan continues to develop an indigenous medium-range anti-tank missile system. The Kornet-Es, with a range of up to 4,000 meters, will be delivered in two years’ time as part of a deal worth about $100 million.
These events pursued further the course towards strengthening the Russian-Turkish military-technical cooperation reflected in the Declaration signed to summarize the results of the February negotiations between Turkish President Abdulla Gul and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow.