Tuesday, 11 June 2019 00:00

Why Do We Buy S-400s?

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Military activities are expressed with the concept of defense today. Air defense systems provide deterrence against air attacks against a country, reduce, limit, delay and prevent the effects of attacks. As the name suggests, it is for defense, not for attack. The system has no possibility to attack another country. Since it is designed to be used in the event of a counter-attack, any country that does not intend to attack need not worry as it will not be harmed. Therefore, they serve peace, not war. In this respect, it is not possible to understand the reactions regarding the S-400 Air Defense Systems to be purchased from Russia.

Moreover, a NATO member Greece, just like us, bought S-300 from Russia and placed it in Crete against another NATO member Turkey. Now they are trying to upgrade it to the S-400s. It is known that there are Russian air defense missiles in the Greek Cypriot Administration. Bulgaria and Slovakia have S-300 missile systems. Syria has S-200 and S-300 missiles. Russia has deployed S-400 in Latakia. Israel has the ‘Arrow anti-ballistic missile systems’ developed with the help of the USA. While there are so many air defense systems in our immediate surroundings, the reactions shown to Turkey's S-400 purchase to strengthen its air defense are very interesting.

When the Syrian civil war began, the air defense systems that Turkey demanded from NATO were met with great resentment. Patriot Batteries from Germany and the Netherlands have been deployed in such a way that they do not completely close our southern airspace. After a while, they left the region. This situation showed that NATO is always reluctant when it comes to our protection, as it has been until now. In our region where regional crises are increasing, Turkey has accelerated its defense industry in order to close its defense vulnerabilities. It produced many defense main systems and equipment, which it had supplied from other countries until recent years, with national means. It had to take secondary measures for the areas where it could not produce today for future. Within this context, it sought air defense systems until it produce the systems it needed for high altitude air defense. Turkey tried to buy Patriot from our ally and strategic partner USA and Samp-T from Europe. In addition to its high price, it could not supply because they did not accept joint production and technology transfer. It had to give up the Feed-2000s, which it planned to buy from China, which made the most appropriate bid in the tender opened on this subject, due to pressure from the USA and NATO. For our air defense, which is becoming more urgent day by day, Russia's offer, which meets our demands such as reasonable price, early delivery, joint production and technology transfer, was accepted. In fact, Ankara-Moscow agreed on the joint development and production of S-500s with Russia. This shows that the defense industry cooperation with Russia is a long-term program. The reasons for Turkey's choice of S-400 are, in a sense, also the reasons for not accepting the situation for the USA. The reasons and effects of the S-400 procurement from Russia in terms of our foreign policy are wide enough to be the subject of a separate article. Let's continue to examine the S-400 Air Defense Systems from a technical point of view.

It is necessary to compare the Feed-2000, Samp-T and S-400s in technical terms, especially the Patriot, which is one of the best in high-altitude (against aircraft and missiles) air defense.

 

In Terms of Radar Range

With a radar range of 4 times (600 km) than the Patriot with a radar range of 150 km, the S-400 has twice the radar range of the other two systems.

 

In Terms of the Number of Targets That Can be Tracked Simultaneously

While the S-400 can simultaneously track 300 air targets, other systems have the ability to track 100 air targets.

 

In Terms of Air Target Range

   

After Patriot with the lowest air target range at 80 km, Samp-T has a range of 120 km and China's Feed-2000 has a range of 200 km. The S-400 is well ahead by a distance of 400 km.

 

In Terms of the Number of Targets Fired Simultaneously

The S-400s can fire at 36 targets simultaneously, while the Patriots can fire at 20 targets, the Samp-T 10 targets and the FD-2000s 6 targets.

 

In Terms of Effective Altitudes of Missiles

Patriots have an effective range of 24 km, while the others have an effective range of 30 km.

  

In Terms of Flight Speeds

       

While S-400s fly at 12 Mach speed, others are at 4 or 5 Mach speed. In order to hit an air target flying at high speed, you must have a missile that can pull ahead at a much higher speed. Speed matters a lot.

The hit rate of the Patriots, which were used extensively for the first time to protect Israel and Saudi Arabia in the 1st Gulf War in 1991, was around 50 percent. In other words, one of every two Patriot missiles fired was successfully hitting the target. (Although the manufacturer explains that there is a lot of progress and development in this regard and states that the hit rates have increased.) As can be seen in the charts, it is clear that the S-400s are the world's best air defense system in their field, with an obvious superiority in every aspect. By having these systems, Turkey will gain the ability to protect its rights and interests in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. In addition, with the joint work on the S-500s, Turkey will have the opportunity to acquire ballistic missile technologies in a shorter time than anticipated. Successful results were obtained for low and medium altitudes in the HISAR series missile program carried out for air defense purposes.

In the procurement of defense equipment, Turkey, which predominantly applied a ready-made purchase model until the end of the 90s, used to make balanced purchases mostly from the USA and Germany. Since the 2000s, Turkey has started to focus on the domestic defense industry, as well as making use of resources other than the USA and Germany. The fact that defense purchases and exports are also instruments of foreign policy should not be ignored. Procurement of defense equipment in the context of international relations should be the subject of a different article.

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