An F-16 Fighting Falcon takes off from Incirlik Air Base, Turkey in support of Operation Inherent Resolve Aug. 12, 2015. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Krystal Ardrey /Released)
The F-16 is not the only option for Turkey if the United States Congress places obstacles before the sales of the fighter jet, Turkish minister of defense Hulusi Akar stated on February 5.
“We expect common sense to prevail, for the United States to evaluate the issue as a whole and decide, and act accordingly,” Milliyet quoted Akar as saying. “Our friends from the parliament are also holding talks in Congress. Our motto is ‘Strong Türkiye, strong [Turkish Armed Forces] TAF, strong NATO, strong Alliance.’ We also say that the F-16 is not the only option.”
Turkey has been negotiating the purchase of 40 new F-16s and 79 upgrade kits for its existing fleet of fighter jets with the U.S. since 2021. However, the Congress is showing strong opposition. American officials have reportedly told their Turkish counterparts that dropping the conditions set for Sweden to become a NATO member will help remove opposition to the deal in Congress.
Akar went on to criticize Sweden for not meeting the “necessities” of a tripartite memorandum for its NATO bid and also for allowing Quran-burning protests in the country.
“As they do not comply with the memorandum, heinous attacks are carried out against Türkiye, the president of Türkiye, a NATO member for 71 years, and the Holy Quran, the symbol of the faith of billions of people. What kind of logic is this? What kind of law is this?” the minister asked.
A recent report by the Middle East Eye revealed that Turkey is currently in talks with the United Kingdom over a possible multi-billion dollar armament deal that would include the Eurofighter Typhoon. Ankara is reportedly looking to purchase 24 to 48 fighter jets. Akar’s remarks were likely a hint to the deal.
The Typhoon deal could help maintain the current capabilities of the Turkish Air Force, which is mainly built of aging F-16s. It would also grant Ankara more political independence from Washington.
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?! By cozying up to the UK Turkey is going to gain some independence from the USA?!
Not sure, UK and US = 2 cheeks of the same rse… and I am British.
TWO horns same head
Yeah, maybe a better description.
Erdogan plays the same game Tito once did. The one who followed after Tito in Yugoslavia was not good enough to play the game and could not adept to the different situation after the sowjet union had collapsed. The result is that there is no longer a Yugoslavia on the map. So Erdogan should make sure he has a succesor in place after him who is as good at this game as he is. Or Turkey might end like yugoslavia did.
And how is it a bad thing for turkey ending up a shit hole? Genocidal maniacs who still think they are the ottoman empire. In amazed how the europeans havent taken back Constantinople yet from these savages.
Byzantium surely.? Because we know out history. The Turks and Russians are part of Europe and the EU would have been fully complementary of Europe if both had been allowed to enter the EU.
I am looking at this objectivly. I am not a friend of the ottoman turks and i sure do not want them to meddle in the balcans. But i do not wish chaos and war to any people on this little blue planet. You do realise that the west wanted to take down erdogan while supporting al quaida to take over syria. If both plannes would have succeded then isis would be at the gates of europe. Thats not something any sane person would want.
It is embarassing to say it but the turks have shown more sanity in the ukrainian conflict then the western nations combined.
You are totally correct.
They should buy SU35S Fighters and withdraw from NATO in my oppinion.
Any country who want to be sovereign needs to build it’s own stuff.
F-16s will just be falling out of the sky anyway. Wouldn’t bet my money on them.
Turkey should buy from Russia, China or Korea
Turkey should cease to exist,
turkey is going to be iran 2 soon and usa will punish them very hard!!
Doesn’t matter if it’s US/UK or any other European fighter, Türkiye needs to understand that whatever weapon the West supplies will be a downgraded/compromised system. Just look at Iraqi and Egyptian F16s or even Türkiye’s own compared to Israel.
Better off going Russian MiG 35 or Su 34/35 to make up replacements for both F16s and F35s. Or, better yet, Chinese J10C
Should Russia or China offer a similar aircraft type, and Turkey accepts, then it’s going to be very interesting from a geopolitical pov.
Turkey likely has interest in Russian SU-35’s at this point, I would assume.
Are French Jets any good?
Nothing French is any good for nonfrench since they remote deactivated the exoccet anti ship missiles of the argentinians in the falkland war after britain asked them to do it and the iraqi air planes after the us asked them to do it and well the lybian air defence to be able to attack them themselves.
If you do not want you weapons to shut down when you need them don’t buy stuff from anyone who might ever attack you or be pushed by the attacker to shup your weapons down. It is best to build your own if you can.
As long as Turkiye is in NATO it will be treated as second class vassal of USA morons. US deliberately sells Turkiye poor quality planes to make sure Israel always gets better equipment. This is humiliation. Turkiye needs to leave NATO. They are strong enough to be a regional power in the multipolar world without NATO
Didn’t any other nato members advise Swedish politicians that Quran-burning protests would be a bad idea? The lack of respect from a nato wannabe for an old member of nato is telling.
Maybe Russia thinks it will need all its planes from now on?
Countries like Sweden don’t fight for Europe and for Jesus Christ anymore. They fight for immorality and atheism and political (in)correctness. This burning is nothing more than provocation.