Seven Countries Now Deploy Russian S-400 Technologies - Over Half a Dozen More Have Shown Interest in Purchases

Russia’s S-400 surface to air missile system first entered service in April 2007, with the first units deployed to protect the Moscow region and subsequent units bring stationed across much of the country. Since it was made available for export in the early 2010s, the S-400 has gained considerable foreign interest with a number of parties seeking either to acquire the platform directly, or else to acquire its technologies for integration onto other systems. Turkey’s receipt of its first S-400 units from July 12th 2019 made it the fifth country reported to deploy the S-400 system - and the seventh to deploy S-400 technologies. Other operators of the system include Russia, China, Belarus and Algeria - which unlike Turkey are all longstanding clients for Russian and Soviet long range air defence systems and have operated such systems for over 40 years. Another two states have acquired S-400 technologies and deployed them in other missile systems. South Korea for one has developed the M-SAM (Cheolmae-2) based on technologies purchased from Russia and is set to also integrate these technologies on its ship based air defence systems. Egypt also acquired such technologies through its purchase of the S-300V4 system, for which it is the sole export client. The S-300V4 is a newer and in some respects more sophisticated system than the S-400, and is more specialised in defence against cruise missiles. The system benefits from higher mobility than the S-400.

While seven countries today deploy S-400 technologies, many more are likely to acquire the system in the near future to strengthen their own air defence capabilities. India’s armed forces signed a $5.43 billion contract for five S-400 regiments in October 2018, and deliveries are set to begin in 2020. An acquisition by Saudi Arabia is also currently under negotiation, with the Arab kingdom expected to deploy the systems by 2025. Interest has also been shown by over half a dozen other states including Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Vietnam and Qatar among others. It has also been speculated that North Korea deploys some S-400 technologies in its KN-06 surface to air missile system, which a number of Western sources claimed was likely developed with Russian assistance. The platform notably closely resembles the S-400, and was first tested just one year after the two states signed an agreement on air defence and intelligence cooperation.

The proliferation of the S-400 system has been cited by a number of official Western sources as a key threat to Western interests, both due to the revenues the sales have provided Russia’s defence sector and to the ability of these systems to limit the freedom of action of the United States and European states to projection power abroad. With Russia placed under harsh economic sanctions by the Western Bloc from 2014, which have since been tightened a number of times, the country’s arms sales have since been targeted in an attempt to place further pressure on the country’s economy. This is also intended to limit the availability of funds for research and development of future Russian weapons systems. The attractiveness of the S-400 to states across the non-Western world has seriously undermined such efforts. The S-400’s ability to intercept attacks from ballistic and cruise missiles and combat aircraft, including stealth aircraft which it was designed specifically to counter, poses a serious challenge to Western designs and could serve to inhibit future military interventions. General Joseph Votel expressed such concerns when speaking before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee in 2018, noting regarding the Middle East specifically that America’s “ability to dominate the airspace” in the region could be seriously undermined. The ability to deny Western aircraft access to airspace in a number of theatres, from the Taiwan Strait to the Korean Peninsula, is a further considerable benefit of the S-400 system for Russia and its allies.