UH-OH: Russia’s Dangerous S-400 Air Defense System is Headed to China (And Maybe Turkey).

“A priority task in the sphere of military technical cooperation is the implementation of the contract for supplies of S-400 Triumf missile systems to Turkey,” Russian president Vladimir Putin said during of the Russia-Turkey Cooperation Council according to TASS. “We hope that the sectoral intergovernmental commission will look into the prospects for further supplies of Russian-made military hardware to Turkey at its next meeting.”

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told TASS that Moscow would do everything possible to deliver the S-400 to Turkey—which has already made a down payment—by 2020. “Turkey did raise this issue. As far as I know, steps will be taken to meet Turkey’s wish,” Ushakov said.

Turkey, for its part, is determined to buy the S-400 despite the threat of sanctions by the United States.

“The U.S. understands Turkey’s desire to improve its air defenses,” a Trump administration official told the Hürriyet Daily News. “But we are concerned and have said so publicly about potential acquisition of Russian S-400 missiles, which would have implications for NATO interoperability and which would potentially expose Turkey to sanctions due to the new sanctions law recently passed by Congress.”

Program costs aside, if Ankara takes delivery of the S-400, we need to seriously reconsider Turkey’s participation in the F-35 program. The S-400 was designed in part to beat fifth-generation stealth fighters like the F-35. If Turkey were to field both systems, the operational intelligence they could provide to Moscow would be invaluable to the Russian military — and dangerous to us and our actual allies.