John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA
“Turkey Tests F-16s and F-4s Against S-400 Radars in Defiance of US Sanctions Threats
“Washington had optimistically called on Ankara not to "activate" the radars and to send them back
“Turkey has begun tests of the radars associated with its new Russian S-400s using American-made F-16 Viper and F-4 Phantom II fighters, defying warnings from the United States that this “activation” of the surface-to-air missile systems could prompt new sanctions.
“U.S. officials had been concerned that the Turkish military might conduct exactly these sorts of tests with the F-35, potentially giving Russia insights into the jets’ capabilities”
The United States just does not know how to deal with Turkey’s President Erdogan, after the failure of its one really serious attempt to do so, in the form of a coup.
That makes him an interesting man to watch, even though, in many respects, he is himself a pretty dark and unpleasant figure.
He will never give up the S-400s simply because Russia has no key to turn them off, as the United States and France very much do for their anti-aircraft equipment.
It is known that Sarkozy's France turned off Colonel Gaddafi's anti-aircraft missiles (expensive stuff he had bought from France) at the time America decided there had to be a "no-fly zone" in Libya, with all that almost automatically follows from that, like bombing the crap out of a place.
Besides, Erdogan is interested in getting Russia’s S-500 later and getting some contracts for Turkey to work on it.
Even though he and Putin do not see eye-to-eye on a good many things, I think Putin has him "hooked," at least enough to provide a continuing source of annoyance for American affairs.
