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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss placing a second order for the S-400 missile systems with Russia during his next visit to the country.

“Regarding... the purchase of the second [S-400] package and so on; we have no hesitation regarding these matters. We have taken many steps with Russia, whether it be the S-400 or the defense industry,” Erdogan told reporters aboard the presidential plane on his return from a short trip to the Balkans.

He added that “all matters” regarding the S-400 purchase would be discussed during his visit to Russia. He did not reveal any more details.

Alexander Mikheev, General Director of Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, reportedly told Russian state media on Monday that the consultations between Turkey and Russia on a new supply of the S-400s were at the “final stage.” This claim was soon rejected by a Turkish official who said there was

“no change in the status of discussions to buy a second S-400 battery.” The official did not altogether deny the probability of purchase of the second battery.

The U.S.-Turkey tensions skyrocketed after the latter bought the S-400 systems from Russia for $2.5 billion in 2017. Washington’s attempts to persuade Ankara to ditch the systems went in vain. Soon after Russia began shipping the S-400s to Turkey in July 2019, the U.S. struck off Turkey’s name from the list of F-35 program partners.

The report is part of a ‘Russian perception operation’ whereby it releases misleading statements against Turkey amid its unsolved issues with the American side. “The Russians are trying to poison (our) relations with the United States,” reports quoted the official as saying.

Russian claim of Ankara being in the ‘final stages’ of a deal to buy a second batch of S-400 air defense system (ADS) is false, a Turkish official has said.

Russian state arms supplier Rosoboronexport General Director Alexander Mikheev reportedly told Russian state media on Monday that the consultations between Turkey and Russia on a new supply of the S-400s were at the “final stage.”

“And in the near future we will go out with partners to formalize and sign a contract," he said.

Rejecting Mikheev’s claims, the Turkish official told Middle East News,

“There is no change in the status of discussions to buy a second S-400 battery.”

The U.S.-Turkey tensions skyrocketed after the latter bought the S-400 systems from Russia for $2.5 billion in 2017. Washington’s attempts to persuade Ankara to ditch the systems went in vain. Soon after Russia began shipping the S-400s to Turkey in July 2019, the U.S. struck off Turkey’s name from the list of F-35 program partners.

The report is part of a ‘Russian perception operation’ whereby it releases misleading statements against Turkey amid its unsolved issues with the American side. “The Russians are trying to poison (our) relations with the United States,” the official was quoted as saying.

However, the official has not altogether denied the probability of purchase of the second battery of S-400 ADS. Earlier Turkish reports had said the second battery sale would involve transfer of technology to Turkey and a more competitive price.

Indian specialists are currently undergoing second phase of training in the operation of the S-400 system.
A group of around 100 Indian Army personnel were sent to Russia in the last week of January to begin training on how to operate them.
"The first part of the training took place, the second part of the training is underway, so everything is according to plan," Alexander Mikheev, head of Rosoboronexport, said on Russian MoD-owned Zvezda TV channel Wednesday.
The first batch of S-400s for India is at the final stage of production. Deliveries will begin as planned in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The second phase of training appears to involve new Indian operators. "As for the training, the first group of Indian specialists completed the training. The second group is undergoing training. I would not talk about the number of people but it is a sufficient number for the Indian armed forces to effectively operate our equipment. I would like to say that the results shown by the first group of Indian specialists after the training were very high. I would like to note the [high] level of training of Indian specialists," Almaz-Antey, Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy CEO of Almaz-Antey said during the Army 2021 International Military-Technical Forum.

Dzirkaln also confirmed that Russia will commence delivery of the systems by the end of this year.

India ordered S-400 air defense systems for $5.43 billion (INR 40,000 crore) in October 2018.
During the U.S. Embassy’s conference on Aero India, Don Heflin, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires, said India may not be spared from CAATSA sanctions for buying Russian equipment.

Negotiations for the sale of an additional battery of Russian S-400 Air Defense System (ADS) to Turkey are in the final stages.

Discussions between Russia’s arms export agency, Rosoboronexport and Turkey on  the S-400 were held during the recent IDEF exhibition where the negotiations werebrought to fruition, the head of Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheev told reporters during the ARMY-2021 event.

“As for the S-400 complex, consultations are continuing. I think that it is already at  the final stage, and in the near future we will begin with partners to formalize and sign a contract, "Mikheev told militarynews when enquired on the topic of a contract for the supply of an additional batch of S-400 air defense systems to Turkey.

In April, The U.S. State Department has notified Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017 (CAATSA) sanctions against Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) and its senior leadership for Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defence systems.

The United States has signed an F-35 agreement with eight countries abolishing an older 2006 deal, locking Turkey out of the program. Ankara was removed from the $399 billion F-35 project after its purchased S-400 missile systems from Russia for $2.5 billion. Despite Turkey’s assurances Washington argued the systems would allow Russia to covertly obtain classified details on the F-35 jets and is incompatible with NATO systems. Turkey was tasked to produce 817 of the jet’s approximately 24,000 airframe part types; and 188 of approximately 3,000 engine part types. These companies will continue producing F-35 components through 2022.

India ordered S-400 air defense systems for $5.43 billion (INR 40,000 crore) in October 2018 and is expecting to receive the first regimental set of the S-400 antiaircraft missile system by the end of 2021.

Three NATO members – Greece, Slovakia and Bulgaria – are in possession of S-300 defense systems.

The Cheongung II missile, considered the South Korean equivalent of the U.S. Patriot air defense system will soon enter mass production following successful completion of quality certification tests.

Cheongung II accurately hit a missile and an aircraft target in firing tests conducted at Taean's Anheung test site in July and August, Defense Agency for Technology and Quality said.

"With the successful completion of the quality certification tests, Cheongung II will now enter the stage of mass production," the agency said in a release today.

Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) describes the Cheongung II (KM-SAM, M-SAM or Cheolmae-2) upgraded system to be Seoul’s first indigenouslydeveloped medium-range surface-to-air guided missile. The system is built based on technology from the 9M96 missile used on S-350E and S-400 missile systems. It is equipped with multifunction radar to strike aircraft and missiles simultaneously.

Roscosmos space agency’s top boss has revealed that Russia’s Sarmat advanced silo-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) completed ground trials.

"In fact, we are completing ground trials of all systems. Never before Russia created an ICBM of this kind," director general of Russia’s state-run Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, told Soloviev Live YouTube channel on Saturday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last week that flight trials of Sarmat ICBM will start this year and finish in 2022.

The Russian Strategic Missile Forces are expected to start receiving Sarmat missiles next year.

Sarmat is to replace R-36M2 Voevoda missiles, which have been the most powerful in the world and operational since 1970s. Sarmat considerably exceeds the predecessor. Some of its characteristics were disclosed at Army-2019 forum. The new missile weighs 208.1 tons, the payload is close to 10 tons and the fuel is 178 tons. The range of Sarmat is 18,000km, as per Russian state media.

It can fly by unpredictable routes and bypass missile defense areas. It can fly over the North and South Pole and approach targets from directions that are not envisaged for interception. Sarmat can carry a line of reentry vehicles, including hypersonic Avangard gliders.

In contrast to Yars and Topol-M ICBMs, Sarmat uses liquid fuel. The higher power allows carrying more warheads, dummy targets, jammers and other tools to break through missile defenses.

So far, Sarmat trials are going in Plesetsk and are limited by pop-up tests to check pre-launch preparations and how the missile leaves the silo. A small charge pops up a mockup to a height of several dozen meters.

Belarus wants to buy the Russian S-400 air defense system (ADS) on liberal loan from Russia, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"Such a question was put before the President of Russia - that at a reasonable price, for a loan - because we do not have that kind of money now. But we are conducting a dialogue with him (with the President of the Russian Federation, about (S)-400 to be delivered to the Republic of Belarus, "Lukashenko said during an interaction with the public and the media on Monday.

“The S-400 is of great interest to us, and I am sure that we will receive these complexes,” he added.

According to Lukashenko, the funds of the Russian state loan, which was previously issued for the construction of the BelNPP, (nuclear power plant) can be used to purchase the S-400 air defense system and other modern weapons of the Russian Federation. "We saved a lot of money at the nuclear power plant. But there was a promise from Putin: here is a loan for the nuclear power plant of $ 10 billion - how much you will save - for other projects," he reportedly said according to Interfax (https://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp? rid=0&nid=554623&lang=RU).

"There will remain from $ 300 million to $ 500 million - a decent amount, we will send for the purchase of military-technical equipment, including the S-400 complexes," he said.

On January 14, the commander of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of Belarus Igor Golub said that Belarus plans to conclude a contract with Russia for the supply of S-400 systems and Pantsir-S complexes.

If Belarus signs up to buy the S-400, it will become the fourth foreign customer to have the S-400 ADS after China, India and Turkey.

Given strained relations between Belarus and the West, the S-400 ADS could ensure that NATO warplanes are kept at bay.

Topol Ballistic Missile

The Russian strategic missile force has decided to decommission the Topol intercontinental ballistic missiles from military service in 2024 and intends to employ them in civilian applications.

"It is planned to remove the latest Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from service in the strategic missile forces in 2024. Topol missiles out of working service are being replaced by Yars intercontinental ballistic missile with MIRVed (multiple independently targetable vehicle) warheads," a source in the defense sector was quoted as saying by TASS on Thursday.

In November of last year, Yuri Solomonov, the Chief Designer of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, said that some of the Topol ICBMs being decommissioned will be repurposed as Start-1 carrier rockets. "A decision on this issue is planned to be made in 2020-2021," he said. Solomonov added everything would depend on two programs for creating two clusters of small-size satellites, for which Start-1 rockets are convenient launch vehicles.

Russia Tests Nuclear-capable Intercontinental Ballistic Missile ‘RS-24 Yars’

There are upto 360 Topol launching systems in ten divisions of the Russian strategic missile forces in 1999.

The Start-1 is a light-class solid-propellant carrier rocket based on the Topol ICBM. With a lift-off weight of 47 tonnes, it can deliver a payload of over 500 kg to a low Earth orbit. In 1993-2006, Russia conducted seven Start rocket launches from the spaceports of Plesetsk and Svobodny (currently Vostochny).

The RS-24 Yars is reported to be designed similarly to Russia’s SS-27 (Topol M) ICBM and the Bulava (SS-NX-32) SLBM. The missile is estimated to be 22.5 meters in length and 2 meters in diameter. It is believed to be fitted with a newer reentry vehicle (RV) design that will allow the RV’s to maneuver in space and during re-entry. The total launch weight of the RS-24 is assessed to be 49,000 kg and is expected to have a minimum range of 2,000 km and a maximum of 10,500 km.