WASHINGTON — The White House informed Turkey on Wednesday that the United States would not sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to its NATO ally, in retaliation for the country’s purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems. President Trump had said a day earlier that Turkey’s order for more than 100 American-made jets would be canceled. The S-400 system is one of Russia’s most advanced antiaircraft weapons and can target and attack aircraft at an average range of roughly 155 miles, flying to an altitude of 82,000 feet. “The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities,” the White House said in a statement. “Accepting the S-400 undermines the commitments all NATO allies made to each other to move away from Russian systems.”“This will have detrimental impacts on Turkish interoperability with the alliance,” the statement said.

Source: New York Times July 17, 2019 23:00 UTC