
jessmo112 wrote:Note a S-400 on the Bosphorus straight would cover alot of greece. Rafales would die after wheels up.
No they would not as the radar horizon would prevent S-400 from seeing them until they were getting higher than 10,000ft. For 400 km range those Rafales would need to get to ovet 30,000ft before being seen by S-400 radars. Of course the max effective range of any SAM system is not the effective range against small and agile fighter aircraft. It's usually about half of the max range unless target is completely surprised by the missile shot and I doubt that will happen with Rafale.
Sure S-400 (or any modern long range SAM system) is a serious threat to any 4th gen fighter, but it's not a Death Star or something like that. I'd say that if Turkey got their F-35s, then Rafale would be pretty much irrelevant. Against S-400, it has more options with cruise missiles and low level flight profiles. Rafale also has very good chances against current Turkish aircraft. Also Greece could use their ATACMS rockets against S-400s, so the Turkish would likely keep their S-400s a bit further away to avoid losing them.