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  • So you are saying Turkey could choose to keep their S-400 procurement a secret until they get their F-35s (or indefinitely thereafter), resulting in the US being able to do not much about it but they choose to defiantly go public and risk loosing it all just to convey a politically message of becoming cosy with Russia?
    – Nederealm
    Commented Mar 12, 2019 at 19:43
  • 2
    @Nederealm, I suggest neither option. If they try to keep it secret and are found out, there will be political damage. If they manage to keep it secret until they announce it in their own timing, there will be political damage. If they make their plans public from their start, there may be political damage. If they do not look for other suppliers, they may look dependent on the West and there may be political damage. But 30 years ago, getting their hands on modern Soviet gear complete with the manuals would have been seen as a great coup, not a betrayal.
    – o.m.
    Commented Mar 12, 2019 at 20:03
  • Hence it depends in part on the ability a particular government has to keep secrets, which depends in part on whether they have wide-ranging laws protecting state secrets or wide-ranging laws requiring information disclosure, as well as on things like freedom of the press. Some governments can spend $10bn without asking or telling anyone, others cannot.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Sep 1, 2022 at 16:16