Türkiye needs five to six years to develop own air defence system of S-400 level

Türkiye is not keeping its S-400 air defence system bought from Russia in a standby alert condition to save resources, Ismail Demir, the head of Türkiye's defence Industries, said on April 18.

"We have purchased the system to defend us from aerial threats. The S-400 system ensures defence from ballistic missiles and high-speed shells. But you activate such an air defence system only when there is a threat or a risk of a threat. Then you deploy its radar and activate it. When there are no threats, there is no need in deploying the system in order to save its resource. The system is fully ready for the use [when threats arise]," he said in an interview with the TRT television channel, TASS report.

He also said that it will take Türkiye an estimated six years to bring the domestically developed air defence system to the level of Patriot or C-400 missile defence systems. "The most difficult thing in this context is to ensure defence from long-range ballistic missiles. Now we ensure our defence from such threats thanks to S-400. We will have to travel some way to have a domestic system of this level. It will take at least six years," he noted.

Touching upon a possible purchase of the second S-400 regiment, Demir noted that now the sides are looking at variants of technology exchange. "At the current, second stage, we say that we have our own production system and interest in using domestic resources (including to manufacture air defence system’s components - TASS). It will take some time to settle this issue, discussions [with the Russian side] of the details have taken the time and will take more time," he said.