The prime-minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, intends to ask the Russian party to put out S-400 “Triumph” air defense systems instead of S-300 “Favorit” ones to Turkish tender, Lenta.ru reports with reference to Anatoliya news agency.

Turkey announced its intention to acquire a batch of air defense systems in 2009. Among the participants of this tender with a total value of over $4 billion were: PAC-3 Patriot (by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, USA), SAMP/T with Aster 30 missiles (Europe), S-300 and S-400 (Russia) and HQ-9 (modified copy of S-300V made by China).

Turkey was going to choose the supplier of air defense systems on July 4th, however, it has not made any decisions yet.

S-400 air defense system outmatches the S-300 one by longer operational range and more advanced electronic hardware. S-400 is able to detect targets at the distance of 600 km and hit them at the distance of 400 km (using next-generation 40Н6Е missiles, which have not been put into service yet). The range of S-300VМ system is 350 km. At that the efficiency of S-400 is almost the same as S-300’s one while using old missiles.

It was reported earlier that Russia will not start the deliveries of S-400 air defense systems to foreign countries until it would fully fill the need of its own army. Russia intends to put 56 divisions of S-400 systems into service by 2020.

Belarus and Kazakhstan will be the first foreign countries to acquire S-400 systems. “Triumph” may also be delivered to China after 2017. The dates of possible deliveries of S-400s to Turkey are not specified.