MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/: A contract on the delivery of the second batch of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Turkey has been signed and the sides are discussing the contract’s financial terms, Head of Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheyev told reporters on Sunday.
"The contract has been signed," the chief executive said, replying to the corresponding question.
The sides are now discussing "the financial arrangement of implementing the contract," he specified.
The Rosoboronexport chief said that the timeframe of implementing the contract would depend "on our partners’ readiness to finally resolve the procedural issues with the financing of this project,"
Russia announced in September 2017 that it had signed a $2.5 billion deal with Turkey on the delivery of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Ankara. Under the contract, Ankara received a regiment set of S-400 air defense missile systems (two battalions). The deal also envisages partial transfer of production technology to the Turkish side.
Turkey is the first NATO member state to purchase such air defense missile systems from Russia. The deliveries of S-400 launchers to Turkey began on July 12, 2019.
Turkey’s decision to acquire the Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile systems has caused a sharply negative reaction from the United States and NATO as a whole. The United States is not abandoning its attempts to make Turkey give up the Russian air defense systems.
As Turkey has not yielded to the pressure and has said that it will not give up the S-400 systems, Washington has excluded Ankara from the US program of developing the fifth-generation F-35 fighter-bomber.
The S-400 ‘Triumf’ is the most advanced long-range air defense missile system that went into service in Russia in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range weapons, and can also be used against ground installations. The S-400 can engage targets at a distance of 400 km and at an altitude of up to 30 km.
