The first batch of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems will be delivered to Turkey in 2019, A Haber TV channel quoted Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli as saying.

The S-400 Triumph SA-21 is a long range surface-to-air missile systems produced by Almaz-Antey.

"The first delivery of S-400s will take place in 2019," the TV channel quoted the minister as saying at a meeting of the inter-parliamentary commission for the budget.

On September 12, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara had signed an agreement with Moscow on buying the S-400 systems and an upfront payment had been already remitted. On November 2, Russian Rostec Corporation CEO Sergey Chemezov told TASS that the contract with Turkey on the sale of S-400 systems exceeded $2 bln. Turkish Undersecretary for Defense Industry Ismail Demir said the delivery of S-400s would begin within two years. On November 11, Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli officially announced that the issue of purchasing Russia’s S-400 systems had been sorted out. Russia’s S-400 Triumph is the latest long-range antiaircraft missile system that went into service in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including intermediate-range missiles, and surface targets.

The S-400 Triumph is intended to engage, ECM, radar-picket, director area, reconnaissance, strategic and tactical aircraft, tactical and theatre ballistic missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles and other current and future air attack assets at a maximum range of 400 km, and a altitude of up to 30 km.

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