BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:40 p.m.) – Turkey allegedly replaced its destroyed air defense system at the Al-Watiyah Airbase with Ukrainian equipment they recently acquired, the Russian publication, Avia.Pro, reported on Friday.
“Turkey has replaced the MIM-23 Hawk systems destroyed by Mirage 2000 fighters with the Soviet S-125,” Avia.Pro said.
According to Avia.Pro, the Turkish military has deployed the modernized S-125 to the Al-Watiyah Airbase in order to prevent future strikes by the Libyan National Army (LNA) and their allies.
“The modernized Soviet S-125 air defense systems acquired by Turkey a few days ago from Ukraine have already been deployed in Libya,” they said. “According to sources, the complexes are located on the territory of Al-Watiyah Airbase, where less than a week ago, as a result of an attack by UAE fighters, at least three Turkish MIM-23 Hawk systems, as well as Ukrainian radar and electronic warfare systems, were lost.”
The Avia.Pro report says that Emirati aircraft bombed the airbase, but there has been no official comment from Abu Dhabi.
“In fact, Turkey took forced measures and began to buy up Soviet weapons, since the latter turned out to be several times better than what Ankara could provide the Libyan Government of National Accord,” the report continued.
The Avia.Pro report added that “Turkey purchased at least 5 S-125 air defense batteries from Ukraine; however, sources claim that there are only three Soviet-designed complexes at Al-Watiyah airbase.”
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