I mean, i also support of us getting f35s but let's assume that the issue is indeed only S-400, why are we so stubborn on holding on these systems then? That's the part that i can't find any answer, is it purely political?
Yes. There you have your answer. The purchase of the S-400 system in 2018 was made by the political "elite" without any input by the Military.
No Air Force in this world would choose and standalone Air Defence System it can't connect to its own Radar and AD network. Especially not 1 Regiment which doesn't even cover 20% of its demands.
Especially not against losing the most cutting edge fighter in the world, of which you have been a partner for the last 20 years. For which your firms were producing parts, for which you were integrating your missiles and bombs, for which your Cruise Missiles was gonna be advertised as the main CM to buy. You guys understand how much money our Firms lost? Türkiye was gonna be the MRO Hub for every single F-35 in the region.
Not only did we lose money, we lost knowledge the Air Force could have gained by operating an 5th gen aircraft for the last 6 years. We could have used our F-35 to patrol over Northern Syria deterring Russians, Iranians and Syrians from making a single move.
Our firms lost knowledge they could have gained by working on parts for an 5th gen aircraft.
Roketsan and Tübitak lost millions they could have made by having LM advertise SOM-J to dozens of countries, now all of those countries are buying NSM instead because there is no alternative.
And still people wanna make you believe the Air Force loves the S-400, the same S-400 that has been rotting away for years now in a warehouse on an Airbase. Same S-400 they saw get decimated and perform like crap in the use of the Russian Military. And we have the export version in standalone mode, you imagine you poorly our S-400 would perform
.
If the decision was up to the Military they would have dealt with this years ago.
No one in their right mind chooses that crap over the F-35.
And now they are afraid of looking like idiots and are afraid of pushback by the Russians if they try to get rid of the S-400. You better believe the Kremlin was laughing its ass off with how easy they tricked Türkiye into getting kicked off the program. No F-35 on its southern flank? And all they had to do was hand over a export S-400 AND they got paid 1,25 Billion dollars?
