Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
Turkey’s Daily Sabah reports that Ankara is close to purchasing an initial round of Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, in what would mark a huge reversal of course following the heated Lockheed F-35 fighter and Russian S-400 saga with Washington, which has sunk US-Turkey relations to a low point over the past year.
Citing Turkish defense sources, the report reveals:
Turkish and Russian officials are discussing the details of the sale of a total of 36 Su-35 fighter jets to Turkey, two months after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) aviation show outside of Moscow.
Russia’s Sukhoi Su-35 fighter, via Russia Insider/Asia Times
This after the US blocked transfer of some 100 F-35 Lockheed Martin produced stealth fighters, at a loss of hundreds of millions to Turkey’s aviation industry, given it was slated to be a joint participant in making the F-35s ready for Turkey’s armed forces.
“Sources added that officials are also discussing Turkey’s possible involvement in the production of some components of the fighter jets, including its precision weapons and ammunition,” the Daily Sabah reports further.
The Su-35S is Russia’s latest most advanced fighter, a derivative of the Su-27 plane, having been in service with the army since 2015. TASS has described its specs as follows:
The Su-35S generation 4++ supersonic fighter jet performed its debut flight on February 19, 2008. The fighter jet is a derivative of the Su-27 plane. The Su-35S weighs 19 tonnes, has a service ceiling of 20,000 meters, can develop a maximum speed of 2,500 km/h and has a crew of one pilot. The fighter jet’s armament includes a 30mm aircraft gun, up to 8 tonnes of the weapon payload (missiles and bombs of various types) on 12 underwing hardpoints.
In late August of this year President Erdogan inspected Russia’s stealth aircraft line-up while attending a major air show in Moscow, including the Su-57 fighter jet and Su-35 fighter jets.
Putin and Erdogan inspect an SU-57 jet at a Moscow airshow in August, via the AP.
That prior photo op outside the cockpit of an Su-57 was widely considered a signal to Washington over just how unconcerned Erdogan apparently is over prior threatened US sanctions related to Ankara’s procurement of the S-400 anti-air defense system.
Days ago Turkey’s Defense minister expressed hope that the issues surrounding the US F-35 holdup would soon be overcome, following a successful deal related to Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria to establish a ‘safe zone’.
“We hope that we will continue producing them. There are some issues right now, but I believe these issues will be overcome,” Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Superb aircraft………………..but………….how turkish will pay it??????????????
russian credit line.
……….I’m sure the oil they are stealing from Syria helps pay the bills !
hopefully by stopping making trouble in syria
USD $2.4 Trillion GDP (PPP) G20 Member State World’s 13th Largest Economy USD $450 billion in construction projects completed during past 5 years alone USD $10 billion in its F-35 acquisition fund sitting there
You need to do some research on Turkey and not rely on mainstream media cough cough propaganda!!
Russia receiving Turkish tomatoes, goat milk, kebab, turkish delight and carpets.
No one else wants the junk , they have tried to sell some of these for awhile now , only Russia bought the garbage so far .
Just shut up troll. You are fired why continuing working for free ? You wont get any paycheck this month.
WTF why
Reason: worst troll in the history of online trolling.
Sorry dude. Here is hard talking.. Just check how effective are in real the Suchois and commentate acurate war-tech-shit ;)
Canada cant even make fighter jets lol
Ya ok
And now this is my favorite part of the Russian Win-Win-Win-Win strategy in Syria. Just beautiful game, and beautiful/deadly plane as well ! Well done Russia/Lavrov/Shoigu/Putin!
Just Erdogan’s regime must back off from Syria.
They will after they have killed a few more PKK.
Amateurish and unprofessional move by Turkey. Either Turkey is together with USA, or Turkey is together with terrorists. There is no middle way for freedom.
Do Turkey want VisaFree EU or not? Do Turkey want to sell their goat cheese to the richest, the free and civilised world or not? Do Turkey want to continue using Visa and Mastercard and SWIFT International?
All these questions should Turkey ask itself about before making any hasty decisions that could have fatal consequences for the Turkish economy in tatters and the Turkish lire who are in free fall.
The Turkish sheeple must wake up and act before its too late for freedom.
The US blocked the Lockheed deal because Erdogan demanded that his factories have access to proprietary technologies that Lockheed considered top secret. He’s probably making the same demands to Putin.
Russian export is freehold and not the Russian version. As shown in India, where they build their own Russian planes.
it’s hard to back down from your threats,once they are out of your mouth – turkey bought the s-400 despite the threats and now, step 2 follows. no f35s for turkey since they didn’t follow our dictate. tough luck baby, we’re after theSu35 at a fraction of the f35 cost and are convinced we will be happy with that choice. and then we can go for some good corvettes, helicopters and long distance missiles to get all the way to tel aviv (since erdogan hates,positively hates, israel and netanyahu and he won’t rest until israel and netanyahu are just a memory for the world).