Russia hopes that Turkey will purchase another batch of air defense systems S-400, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov told the round-the-clock television news channel Rossiya-24 in an interview.

“It is very likely they will use this option and keep working with us. We do hope for this,” he said.

“As far as arms export is concerned, it should be noted that competition on the market of military hardware has been always harsh. We firmly hold second place as to the volume of sales,” Borisov stated.

Air defense systems, aircraft and some types of equipment for ground troops are sales leaders.

“Currently our shipbuilders have good prospects, as some new types of products have emerged, such as small corvettes, patrol ships, and diesel-electric submarines. Also, we see good prospects in the market of radio-electronic warfare equipment,” he noted.

“Turkey opted for this air defense system [S-400], because its parameters are the best in the world. Generally speaking Russian air defense systems are head and shoulders above their foreign rivals. The situation in Saudi Arabia, where drones attacked oil refineries, clearly demonstrated this. Patriot and other defense systems failed, while continued attacks against our base Khmeimim are invariably repelled by our air defenses,” Borisov stated, adding that Pantsir performed very well.

“I believe that our task in this field is to retain a niche on the foreign market. As far as the export of weapons is concerned, we should retain the gained positions and step up sales by offering new products. We have stable contracts for $55 billion in the long term and achieve impressive results every year,” Borisov claimed. Russia exports $15 billion of weapons every year.

Source: TASS