There are some real dummies in the defense machinery, they leak all sort of things to their pals in the media, usually in return for sex instead of money, then get their tighty whities in a wad over someone looking to France, Britain, Russia, or even China for weapons.
Maybe if it hadn't been so widely reported that the US had back-doors that allowed them to make things like SAMs inoperable countries wouldn't be looking elsewhere for weapons.
[Maybe if it hadn’t been so widely reported that the US had back-doors that allowed them to make things like SAMs inoperable countries wouldn’t be looking elsewhere for weapons. ]
Nah - it’s the usual bribe-taking tendencies of Third World leaders. Buyers of Russian weaponry tend to rank very low on the corruption index (i.e. be very corrupt). Birds of a feather and all that.