Although the point about Turkish drones being effective against Russian equipment I find misleading; drones are just effective against ground targets in general, doesn’t matter if it’s Russian or American made.
Also I wouldn’t call the Mediterranean ‘ocean’; to get to the Atlantic Russian ships still have to pass through the strait of Gibraltar, also controlled by NATO countries.
Different air defense systems are designed differently, and may not be equally effective at combating a given threat, so the performance of Turkish drones in the presence of Russian-produced air defense in particular is relevant.
I was going to object that the Southern coast of the strait of Gibraltar is controlled by Morocco, which is not in NATO, but I just checked, and one of Spain’s African territories is next to the strait, and I found a claim that this makes it impossible to cross the strait without entering Spanish territorial waters. Reasons that the Turkish straits could potentially be relevant anyway are that decisions by Turkey or by Spain to create an international incident with Russia over transit rights through their territorial waters may be made independently of each other, and the Suez canal also exists (though admittedly that’s an obnoxiously long route to the Atlantic). In any case, I saw somewhat that Turkey says they can’t close the straits to Russia, so this all may be moot.
Also, it occurred to me that the reason for more attention been focused on the possibility of Turkey closing the Turkish straits to Russian warships than to Spain closing the strait of Gibraltar to Russian warships probably has to do with the different legal status that the two straits have (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_passage)
Good points.
Although the point about Turkish drones being effective against Russian equipment I find misleading; drones are just effective against ground targets in general, doesn’t matter if it’s Russian or American made.
Also I wouldn’t call the Mediterranean ‘ocean’; to get to the Atlantic Russian ships still have to pass through the strait of Gibraltar, also controlled by NATO countries.
Different air defense systems are designed differently, and may not be equally effective at combating a given threat, so the performance of Turkish drones in the presence of Russian-produced air defense in particular is relevant.
I was going to object that the Southern coast of the strait of Gibraltar is controlled by Morocco, which is not in NATO, but I just checked, and one of Spain’s African territories is next to the strait, and I found a claim that this makes it impossible to cross the strait without entering Spanish territorial waters. Reasons that the Turkish straits could potentially be relevant anyway are that decisions by Turkey or by Spain to create an international incident with Russia over transit rights through their territorial waters may be made independently of each other, and the Suez canal also exists (though admittedly that’s an obnoxiously long route to the Atlantic). In any case, I saw somewhat that Turkey says they can’t close the straits to Russia, so this all may be moot.
They have apparently reversed themselves on this.
Also, it occurred to me that the reason for more attention been focused on the possibility of Turkey closing the Turkish straits to Russian warships than to Spain closing the strait of Gibraltar to Russian warships probably has to do with the different legal status that the two straits have (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_passage)