AAfter an order for 40 F-16Vs for the Turkish Air Force, already announced, it now seems that negotiations for 20 F-35s are close to being concluded between the United States and Turkey, after Ankara gave its approval to Sweden's membership in NATO last March.
Indeed, according to sources cited by the Greek press, Washington and Ankara are close to finding a compromise on the S-400 battery acquired from Russia, the very battery that triggered the country's CAATSA sanctions and its exclusion from the F-35 program.
The fact remains that these negotiations are of great concern to Athens and Nicosia, who fear an imbalance in the balance of power with their Turkish neighbour. Above all, this announcement, when put into context, seems to outline a future evolution in the export strategy for Lockheed Martin's fighter, while the NGAD programme is undergoing a major transformation.
In this section:
The arrival of the first S-400 battery and the exclusion of Turkey from the F-35 program
In December 2019, President Donald Trump decided to exclude Turkey from the F-35 program, and to put the country and its defense industry under sanctions, in application of the new CAATSA legislation. Indeed, Ankara had just received the first elements of the S-400 air defense battery, acquired from Russia.
For Washington, the arrival of this anti-aircraft battery constituted not only a violation of CAATSA legislation, but it threatened the F-35's secrets by allowing it to gather information about the stealth fighter, information that, if collected by Russia, could facilitate its detection.
This sanction was quickly joined by Europe, in protest of the military operation launched by Turkey in northern Syria against their Kurdish allies against the Islamic State.
Deprived of Western support and technologies, the Turkish defense industry quickly came to a standstill, leading to numerous delays for certain critical programs, including on the export scene, such as Altay heavy tank, T-129 helicopter or the Ada corvettes.
After four years of arm wrestling, the situation has now calmed down, particularly between Ankara and Washington, especially once the Turkish authorities lifted their veto on Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO.
Thus, the Turkish army was able to order 40 F-16Vs to modernize its fighter fleet, while starting advanced negotiations with several European countries, especially Spain, with a view to acquiring, among other things, 40 Eurofighters Typhoon, while allowing the national defense industry to restart quickly.
Washington and Ankara reportedly close to compromise to allow Turkish air force to acquire 20 F-35s
Paradoxically, it was the war in Ukraine that offered a way out of this situation to Ankara, and RT Erdogan. Indeed, the Turkish president decided to abandon the strategy of more or less direct threats against Greece and some NATO allies, including France, applied since 2020, to exploit his statutory veto that emerged from Sweden and Finland's application for membership in NATO.
There are 75% of this article left to read, Subscribe to access it!
The Classic subscriptions provide access to
articles in their full version, and without advertising,
from €1,99. Subscriptions Premium also allow access to archives (articles over two years old)
BLACK FRIDAY : – 20% on new monthly and annual Premium and Classic subscriptions, with the code MetaBF2024, until 03/12/24
Aithon Narlis collaborated on this article.
It's the opening of the big f35 sale. We're selling off everything. The question is this. Why buy an airplane that will never be operational given that its computer science is still incomplete and whose stealth performance will be compromised in a few months by the new Thales radar! The USA is about to put it on the second ray. It costs an arm and a leg to use for reduced availability. Which, it's true, reduces its cost of use. Unanswered question, so it's not a question!
In my opinion, it remains the only stealth aircraft of its class that can be purchased on the market. We can turn the subject in all directions, highlight the maintenance problems, the interference in the mission system, the exorbitant price to upgrade it to block IV, it remains the best level of detection effectors, the best in stealth accessible on the international market, the best in SEAD missions and this, whatever one says, is still a hold-up like the F-104 of LM.