Russia Accelerates Shipment of S-400s To Turkey, Trains Chinese Military On Its Use

Russia has completed training the Chinese military personnel on the use of S-400 air defense systems and has planned to deliver second batch of the systems to Turkey in 2020.  

Moscow began shipping the S-400s to China, contract for which was signed in 2014, earlier this month. The value of the agreement is estimated to be worth $3 billion. Russia reportedly began training Chinese military forces during March of this year. "About 100 military servicemen from the Chinese People's Liberation Army who will maintain the second S-400 regiment set, completed a training course to use the S-400 systems in July and returned to their home country," a military diplomat was quoted as saying by TASS on Wednesday.

Deliveries of the air defence systems even in case of Turkey began this month. The NATO-ally struck a $2.5 billion deal with Russia for the defense systems in 2017, irking the United States.

“The second batch of S-400 deliveries may begin next year. Control over the systems will be carried out by Turkey," Ismail Demir, head of Turkey’s Defense Industry Directorate, told TGRT TV channel.