This is a nice try by Congress to fix it:
The U.S. would be able to buy Turkey’s Russian-made S-400 air defense system under legislation proposed in the Senate last week. The proposal is one powerful lawmaker’s attempt to alleviate the impasse between Washington and Ankara over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
One can imagine the opportunity to closely examine the S-400 and turn the tables on Russia in this Russian effort to flip Turkey. It seems clever, as one former Defense Department official is quoted as saying.
But then you consider that Russia almost certainly only sent an export version.
And Israel or America may already have information on the system.
Then you imagine that Russia has other less efficient ways to steal secrets about the F-35 if we deliver them to Turkey other than plugging the S-400 into the plane (if Erdogan even makes the Russians steal them).
And then you remember that the poor relations are not because of an S-400 crisis but because we have an Erdogan crisis.
So a hard pass on this if the delivery of F-35s to Turkey is resumed.
