https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon...ion-is-silent/
Turkey has the S-400. The Trump administration is silent.
WASHINGTON — After months of threatening quick,
severe action against Turkey should Ankara accept the Russian-made S-400 air defense system, the Trump administration has yet to react to the delivery of the weapon system.
A Turkish Defense Ministry statement early Friday said “the first group of equipment” of the S-400 air defense systems
reached the Murted Air Base near Ankara on Thursday evening. The delivery of parts of the system will continue in the coming days and authorities will decide “how it will be used” once the system is made operational, Turkey’s defense industry authority said in a statement.
The Pentagon initially called an 11:15 AM press briefing to discuss the S-400 retaliation. It was then switched to 1:45, then postponed indefinitely. A defense official told reporters that Acting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper spoke with his Turkish counterpart for half an hour during the afternoon, but said there will be no readout from the call. There has been no statement issued from the White House or State Department......
Gen. Mark Milley, Trump’s choice to be the next chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said in written testimony to the Senate Thursday that “my recommendation would be to discontinue the transfer of F-35 aircraft to Turkey and unwind Turkey from the F-35 program if Turkey accepts delivery of the S-400. The S-400 is a Russian system built to shoot down aircraft like the F-35.”........
While the administration has yet to respond, Congressional leaders were vocal Friday. In a joint statement Friday afternoon, the bipartisan leadership of the Senate defense and foreign relations committees said “there must be consequences” for Turkey accepting the S-400. “We urge President Trump to fully implement sanctions as required by law under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,” they said in the statement. “Additionally, while all F-35 material deliveries remain indefinitely suspended, we call on the Department of Defense to proceed with the termination of Turkey’s participation in the F-35 program.”........
The U.S. actions against Turkey with the F-35 are a bilateral issue, but questions now arise about how the S-400 delivery will impact the relationship between Ankara and NATO.
Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe now with the Center for a New American Security, noted that there are often political disagreements inside the NATO alliance. But the potential of the S-400 fight is a different level that “actually undercuts” the alliance military capability, he said. “This isn’t something you can negotiate around,” Townsend said. “This is a big deal, where action has to be taken. It will confront NATO with a political problem that is pretty unique, in the sense of, what do you do with a NATO ally that has taken actions to weaken the military capability of the alliance? How do you deal with that?”
But while the alliance may be getting caught in the “frag pattern” of the fight between the U.S. and Turkey, Townsend also sees it as unlikely that Turkey would leave the alliance, nor be pushed out (legally, NATO experts say, there is no mechanism to force a state out of the alliance.) And he sees a potential path forward where Turkey can claim a political victory while walking back the S-400 purchase, if the U.S. and other allies will allow it: that Turkey accepts the S-400 deliveries but leaves everything crated up in a warehouse while reopening U.S. negotiations, eventually leading to an agreement with the S-400 never set up.
“Delivery is starting. It hasn’t ended yet. Once delivery is done, these things will stay in crates until Russian technicians come in to help set it up. Then the Turkish forces need training. So there are a lot of steps for this,” Townsend said. “NATO has to come up with something that helps Erdogen get out of this corner. And the question is, will NATO be patient, or will they be too mad?”