An unprecedented breach between the United States and Turkey over its purchase of a controversial Russian weapons system has caused the biggest crisis in Nato for decades, senior US sources said yesterday.
Relations between the two Nato members deteriorated further following the official cancellation by the Trump administration of Turkey’s purchase of America’s most advanced stealth fighter jet.
The action was in retaliation for President Erdogan’s decision to buy Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft system, which is not compatible with Nato’s air-defence systems. The S-400, one of the best of its kind in the world, can track multiple targets simultaneously and shoot them down.
Pentagon officials said the ending of Turkey’s engagement in the multibillion-dollar F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter programme was unavoidable. They said Russian
