Much has been made of Turkey's acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile battery purchased by Nato's Turkey. "It's an invasion on Nato", the US proclaims. Since the Russians will be there to install the S-400 missile they will become privy to F-35 secrets as Turkey not only supports parts and engineering to the vast US/Lockheed program and it would be flying up to 100 of its type within its own Airforce. The Russians are licking its chops to get its hands on just one F-35 to defeat the F-35 purpose.
The US has drawn a line in the sand. Either buy the F-35 or the S-400 but not both. It's not about the F-35's ability or the S-400's internals but its about access to the respective programs. Russia wants to know how sensor fusion really works and the Americans already know how the S-400 missile really works. The US has more to lose in this boxing match and it doesn't want a fight that is unessescary. The F-35 is too valuable to the US compared with the Russian S-400 system. It is a belief that Russia is more brag than fact concerning its own military-industrial complex. The S-400 is already defeated using the Pentagon mentality.
Turkey is now playing the SU-57 card saying it will buy the Russian premiere jet if the US F-35 deal falls through. The US is shrugging at Turkey indicating "and your point is"! Turkey is sliding down a perilous path trying to leverage NATO/US aspirations with a good SU-57 deal. It already holds the US by the throat by making F-35 parts and supplying F-35 technology supporting the Lockheed program. That in its self is leverage or so it seems. The US is already porting the Turkish contribution over to the US controlled F-35 sub-partners. The US only needs time to cut Turkey out of the F-35 equation completely. Russia can't even field a fighter wing of SU-57's for its own needs, so how will it replace the 100 F-35's ordered by Turkey? So how will Russia field 100 SU-57's to Turkey with dumbed down features and supply high end features only reserved for the mother country, Russia?
It should be called a Turkish bluff. But the US is yawning at the bluff as it prepares to lose Turkey from NATO. It is sending the signal, " Go ahead Turkey, become Russia's problem child, we have a better plan "B" than the current plan "A" with you in the mix." Yes, its a US military set back only with time as the main victim. The US is making up time by keeping Turkey busy with negotiation and peripheral issue issues. The Patriot missile dropped by Turkey is a card played, as it already was going play the S-400 card next. The SU-57 card Turkey will play is countered by secrets the US holds. Remember, Turkey is not an adversary, but a spoiled member of NATO. It's just that Turkey will have to go it alone in any regional conflagration. Turkey claims it needs self-defense options and is playing hardball pitting Russia against the US. Isreal doesn't care nor does the US if Turkey has to use Russian equipment securing its own region. "Just don't come knocking if you exceed a no-fly zone outside of Turkey."
No fly means no missiles or jets crossing airspace outside of its own national borders. That is the trump card the US holds during card play with Turkey. The US doesn't care if Turkey is in Nato or if the F-35 program is intertwined with Turkey because it has already begun plan "B". The US is already six months down the road from being strangled by Turkey's neck hold over the Patriot missile and F-35 deals it didn't or did make respectively. If you think there wasn't written in the F-35 deal paperwork forbidding Turkey from interacting found on the US adversary list, then you are greatly mistaken. The US, in order to have Turkey to make F-35 parts and supply engineering, was only given if they bought 100 F-35's as a partner. Buying Russian military equipment was a violation of the deal.
Now that Turkey is this far into the deal, it feels it has the US over a barrel. The US think tank has already broach that "what if" question whether Turkey would bolt after firmly entrenched into the F-35 program. "Bolting" is leverage to get a better position against the US. This is also true with all US partners in the F-35 program.
Canada is one nation in mind as it plays with the US at "arms" length. The US doesn't have friends, it only has opportunist in the world market place. Turkey is playing badly and the US has already closed the book on Turkey. It has sent the message out to Turkey,
"please buy those Su-57's from Russia or something else like the Su-35 and don't fly them outside of Turkey or they will be shot down because you violated the good faith deal we had with each other over those S-400 missiles as you spit in our face."
The US F-35 supply chain won't stop, even without Turkey involved. The S-400 missile won't fly over US allies heads because the patriot missile will be in place at a platform in the Mediterranian. Isreal, Greece, and Iraq have skin in the game. The US is partnered with those countries making the S-400 purchase a direct reference to those nations which has its backs towards the US. Turkish resolve for Russia's military complex is a loss of the greatest proportion. It has traded for the S-400 and Russian military equipment at a bargain price leaving it
undefended from itself. Turkey has at its back Russia and its loosely knit family of "friends" not to forget Syria. The F-35 supply chain is more deadly than the S-400 missile.
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