The Greek press reported on Monday that Turkey had "illuminated" a Greek F-400 returning from a multinational exercise with its S-16 air defense system.
Turkey, a NATO country, unaware of Washington's warnings about the S-400 system, would now even use it to track down an aircraft that is part of the Atlantic Alliance.
There was no uproar on the affair. The Pentagon was silent on the episode. A State Department spokesperson said some US officials are "aware of the incident reports."
Meanwhile, a couple of Capitol Hill senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking if the local press reports were true, urging the administration to impose sanctions.
"The story shows that Turkey has no intention of reversing course and dismantling the Russian air defense systemWrote Senators Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., And James Lankford, R-Okla.,.
"The recent activation by Turkey of the S-400 system to detect the US-made F-16 underscores our grave concerns about Russia's ability to access sensitive data ”. The senators increase the dose.
Ankara's purchase of the S-400 in 2017 raised concerns from insiders that the Russian air defense system would send sensitive information about NATO aircraft and networks to Moscow.
After Turkey began acquiring the first S-400s last year, the Trump administration excluded Ankara from the F-35 program.
Bloomberg also reported that Ankara does not want to go back and plans to test the system next week at a site in Sinop province on the Black Sea coast. From there, the missile system, which has a range of 400 kilometers, could have a brought the planes that pass over a large part of the sky, where many US and Russian military planes pass.
The Bloomberg article states that Turkey "is not activating the batteries, but is testing equipment and staff training."
Analysts are divided on how the US will respond to this latest provocation, if it is ever proven to be true. Turkey has already acquired the S-400 and is unlikely to give up on the extremely expensive hardware, analysts say. And although Congress has called for sanctions to be imposed on Ankara, President Donald Trump has so far been reluctant to impose them. It is unclear, however, whether this latest incident will change Washington's decisions.
Under a 2017 law known by its acronym, CAATSA, the United States must impose sanctions on governments that make a major defense purchase from Russia. Lawmakers insist that the S-400 deal meets this definition.
"If they're firing the S-400, they're probably using it somehow," said Thomas Karako, a missile defense expert at the think tank at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “But use is not the criterion for implementing CAATSA sanctions.
"The burden of proof is not to establish" misuse "- say, to fellow NATO allies," Karako said. “The CAATSA language is about the delivery of weapons from Russia”.
The State Department spokesperson did not rule out the use of CAATSA.
"We continue to strongly object to Turkey's purchase of the S-400 air defense system, and we are deeply concerned about reports that Turkey is continuing its efforts to put the S-400 into operation," the spokesman said. of the Department of State. "We continue to stress at the highest level that the transition to the S-400 remains a major obstacle in bilateral relations and with NATO, as well as a risk for potential CAATSA sanctions."
The department is "confident that President Erdogan and his senior officials understand our position."
However, the alleged incident would suggest that Ankara is proceeding quickly with the implementation of the system.
The S-400 It's a battery is made up of a command post, missile launchers and a powerful radar capable of detecting and tracking multiple objects simultaneously from hundreds of miles away.
“Radars don't just track enemies, in surveillance mode, they transmit everything to see if anything comes up,” Karako said. "But when they find something, they put more energy on the target to follow it."
For Turkey, the alleged episode is not directed at NATO and the United States, but at Greece.
Erdogan could use a muscular foreign policy against Greece to divert Turkish public opinion from the ongoing economic crisis and its increasingly autocratic leadership.
During the summer the dispute with the Greeks for access to gas reserves in the Mediterranean opened in the Mediterranean, increasing tensions on the divided island of Cyprus and the crossing of migrants from Turkey to Greece.
Pompeo visited Greece, Crete and Cyprus in September, during which he explicitly supported Cyprus and Greece in their maritime rights dispute.
“We remain deeply concerned about Turkey's ongoing operations to investigate natural resources in the areas over which Greece and Cyprus claim jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Republic of Cyprus has the right to exploit its natural resources, including the right to hydrocarbons found in its territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, "Pompeo said in a speech prepared on September 12."
We also believe that Cyprus' resources should be shared equally between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. ”US relations with Turkey have become increasingly strained over the past two years. Although the standoff on the S-400 was the central issue, Erdogan's foray into Syria in October 2019 also created a major rift between the two NATO allies.
Some analysts and lawmakers have argued that Turkey's purchase of the S-400 shows it is moving away from the United States and the rest of NATO.
Still others claim that Turkey is only doing what it has always done: making tactical and strategic decisions based on what it considered its best interests. But within the executive branch, officials are well aware of the cost of a deeper split with Turkey. At stake includes access to several key US and NATO sites. Incirlik Air Base hosts American B-61 nuclear gravity bombs and is a convenient entry point to the Middle East. Turkey also controls the Bosphorus, which under a 1936 agreement means it controls naval access to and from the Black Sea.