Turkey will be sanctioned if it goes forward with the purchase of Russia's S-400 missile system, acting US Defense Secretary Mark Esper told his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Wednesday following a NATO defense ministerial.
"Turkey has been a longstanding and trusted partner and ally for many, many years," Esper said. "The pursuit of the S-400 undermines that."
For months, US officials have urged Turkey to scrap its deal to acquire the Russian-made aerial missile defense system and buy the American-made Patriot system. Esper said Turkey would be dropped from the F-35 fighter jet program if it went ahead with the deal.
Turkey has refused to bow down to US pressure, saying the deal for the S-400s has been completed. Deliveries are expected in July.
Read more: Is NATO's future at risk over US-Turkey rift?
'Imposing sanctions on each other'
Before leaving to Japan for a G20 summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdogan warned Washington against imposing sanctions on a fellow NATO ally.
"If NATO allies are now imposing sanctions on each other, I don't know anything about that," Erdogan said. "These are not impressions I got from the talks I have had with Mr. Trump until now."
Erdogan is scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump on Saturday. The acquisition of Russian-made military hardware is likely to be a contentious subject for the two.
Read more: Opinion: Erdogan's ego trip buying Russian arms
Russia has deployed the S-400 system in Syria, with observers describing it as one of the most successful missile defense systems on the planet
Controversial moves
Over the past year, Turkey has sought to boost ties with Russia, including in the area of defense.
In May, Erdogan announced that Turkey and Russia would develop Moscow's next generation missile defense system, the S-500.
The US has halted deliveries of F-35-related equipment over Turkey's refusal to drop the S-400 deal. The White House has given Turkey until July 31 to withdraw from the deal.
Read more: Russia encroaches on US war industry in Middle East
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
AI: 'Third revolution in warfare'
Over 100 AI experts have written to the UN asking them to ban lethal autonomous weapons — those that use AI to act independently without any human input. No "killer robots" currently exist, but advances in artificial intelligence have made them a real possibility. The experts said these weapons could be "the third revolution in warfare," after gunpowder and nuclear arms.
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Gunpowder
The "first revolution in warfare" was invented by the Chinese, who started using the black substance between the 10th and 12th centuries to propel projectiles in simple guns. It gradually spread to the Middle East and Europe in the following two centuries. Once perfected, firearms using gunpowder proved to be far more lethal than the traditional bow and arrow.
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Artillery
The invention of gunpowder also introduced artillery pieces to the battlefield. Armies started using basic cannons in the 16th century to fire heavy metal balls at opposing infantrymen and breach defensive walls around cities and fortresses. Far more destructive field guns were invented in the 19th century and went on to wreak havoc in the battlefields of World War I.
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Machine guns
Guns that fire multiple rounds in rapid succession were invented in the late 19th century and immediately transformed the battlefield. Machine guns, as they came to be known, allowed soldiers to mow down the enemy from a protected position. The weapon's grisly effectiveness became all too clear in WWI as both sides used machine guns to wipe out soldiers charging across no man's land.
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Warplanes
Military thinkers did not ignore the invention of the first airplane in 1903. Six years later, the US military bought the first unarmed military aircraft, the 1909 Wright Military Flyer. Inventors experimented with more advanced fighter and bomber aircraft in the following years. Both became standard features in many of the national air forces established by the end of WWI.
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Mechanization
Armies had traditionally used soldiers and horses to fight and transport military equipment. But around WWI, they started using more machines such as tanks and armored vehicles. Faster and more destructive armies were the result. Nazi Germany put this new form of "mechanized warfare" to destructive effect in WWII using an attack strategy known as "Blitzkrieg" ("lightning war").
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Missiles
Although artillery was effective, it had a relatively limited range. The missile's invention in WWII suddenly allowed an army to strike a target hundreds of kilometers away. The first missile — the German V-2 — was relatively primitive, but it laid the foundation for the development of guided cruise missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Jet engine
Jet aircraft first saw action alongside traditional propeller airplanes at the end of WWII. Jet engines dramatically increased an aircraft's speed, allowing it to reach a target quicker and making it far harder for an adversary to shoot it down. After WWII, military reconnaissance planes were developed that could fly higher than 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) and faster than the speed of sound.
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Nuclear weapons
The "second revolution in warfare" announced its horrific arrival on August 6, 1945 when the US dropped the first nuclear bomb — "Little Boy" — on the city of Hiroshima in Japan, killing between 60,000 and 80,000 people instantly. In the Cold War that followed, the US and Soviet Union developed thousands of even more destructive warheads and raised the specter of a devastating nuclear war.
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Technologies that revolutionized warfare
Digitization
Recent decades have witnessed the ever more prevalent use of computers to conduct war. The devices made military communication quicker and easier and radically improved the precision and efficiency of many weapons. Armed forces have recently focused on developing cyber warfare capabilities to defend national infrastructure and attack foreign adversaries in cyberspace.
Author: Alexander Pearson
ls/se (AP, AFP)
