F-16V against NATO membership, the United States will give in to President Erdogan's blackmail

From announcement of Stockholm and Helsinki's candidacy for NATO following the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the renewed tension in Europe caused by it, Turkey exploits as much as possible the statutes of the Atlantic Alliance, which requires that a new membership receive the approval of all of its members, in an attempt to lift all or part of the sanctions imposed by the American Congress but also by the Europeans following the acquisition of an anti-aircraft battery -aircraft S-400 near Moscow and the military operation against the Kurds in Syria. Claiming support from Scandinavian capitals for Kurdish nationals considered by Ankara to be Kurdish Workers' Party terrorists, Ankara has indeed systematically opposed this membership, even though the official requests sent by the Turkish authorities to their Swedish and Finnish counterparts related to refugees whose link with the PKK was far from established.

However, except to implode the alliance at a highly critical moment, the Western chancelleries, including Washington, have for several months found themselves without a solution to override the Turkish opposition. And in fact, Swedish and Finnish membership being considered strategic by Washington, Joe Biden officially asked Congress to authorize the export of the 40 F-16Vs and 80 modernization kits to transform 80 of the F-16 C/Ds in service with the Turkish Air Force to this standard, so as to obtain the lifting of President Erdogan's veto in this file. It is not known, to date, whether other Turkish requests have also been incorporated into this request, such as the authorization to equip the new T-FX fighter with F-110 engines from General Electric, the T-129 Atak helicopters with Rolls-Royce-Honeywell LHTEC CTS-800 turbines, and even to bring Germany to lift the sanctions on the PTU engines and RENK transmissions of the Altay tank.

The arrival of 120 F-16Vs in Turkey will not go without upsetting the balance of power in the Middle East, in the Caucasus but especially in the Aegean Sea, facing the Greek air forces which, for their part, are fielding 80 of these fighters , as well as 24 aircraft Rafale F3R, alongside older F-16 C/D and Mirage-2000-5 aircraft. For good measure, Washington therefore announced that it would authorize the sale of 20 F-35As to the Greek air forces, so as to, according to American perception, re-establish a favorable balance of power in favor of Athens. Incidentally, American manufacturers like Lockheed-Martin will be able to sign $8 billion in contracts, $4 billion for the F-16V and Turkish kits, and $4 billion for the Greek F-35A. The fact remains that by giving in to the standoff initiated by President Erdogan, even in order to integrate Sweden and Finland into NATO, the United States is opening a dangerous Pandora's box.

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