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On July 17th, the White House announced that Turkey has been officially removed from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
The statement announcing the decision was made by White House Spokesperson Stephanie Grisham.
“Unfortunately, Turkey’s decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible. The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities. The United States has been actively working with Turkey to provide air defense solutions to meet its legitimate air defense needs, and this Administration has made multiple offers to move Turkey to the front of the line to receive the U.S. PATRIOT air defense system. Turkey has been a longstanding and trusted partner and NATO Ally for over 65 years, but accepting the S-400 undermines the commitments all NATO Allies made to each other to move away from Russian systems. This will have detrimental impacts on Turkish interoperability with the Alliance. The United States still greatly values our strategic relationship with Turkey. As NATO Allies, our relationship is multi-layered, and not solely focused on the F-35. Our military-to-military relationship is strong, and we will continue to cooperate with Turkey extensively, mindful of constraints due to the presence of the S-400 system in Turkey.”
“The US and other F-35 partners are aligned in this decision to suspend Turkey from the programme and initiate the process to formally remove Turkey from the programme,” said Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment at the Pentagon.
“All actions to wind down were reversible and this was done to allow sufficient time for Turkish personnel associated with the F-35 program to be reassigned and depart the United States by July 31, 2019,” Lord said in her briefing.
Lord said moving the supply chain for the advanced fighter jet would cost the US between $500m and $600m in non-recurring engineering costs.
Turkey makes more than 900 parts of the F-35, she said, adding the supply chain would transition from Turkish to mainly US factories as Turkish suppliers are removed.
“Turkey will certainly and regrettably lose jobs and future economic opportunities from this decision,” Lord said. “It will no longer receive more than nine billion dollars in projected work share related to the F-35 over the life of the programme.”
US President Donald Trump blamed the failure on former US President Barack Obama, despite Turkey and Russia agreeing to the purchase of the S-400 system in September 2017.
On July 16th, Trump refused to criticize the purchase of the S-400 system, but said that the F-35 can’t be delivered in such a scenario.
“I’ve had a good relationship with President Erdogan,” Trump told journalists.
“It’s a very tough situation that they’re in and it’s a very tough situation that we’ve been placed in… With all of that being said, we’re working through it – we’ll see what happens,” he said.
“Because they have a system of missiles that’s made in Russia, they’re now prohibited from buying over 100 planes. I would say that Lockheed isn’t exactly happy. That’s a lot of jobs,” Trump said, referring to the F-35 manufacturer.
The U.S. Department of State cleared a possible $3.5 billion sale of Patriot air defense systems to Turkey in December, although the Department of Defense warned that that acquisition, along with those of CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters, UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters, and F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft could be affected by its going ahead with the S-400 purchase.
Part of what has driven Erdoğan’s decision to go with the S-400 system is that Turkey may gain the technology to build S-400 systems itself.
“Now our goal is co-producing with Russia, ” Erdoğan said. “We’ll do this. We’ll go even further.”
On July 17th, the Turkish Foreign Ministry responded to the US decision, calling it “unfair.”
“This unilateral step contradicts with the spirit of alliance and does not rely on any legitimate justification.
It is not fair to remove Turkey, a main partner, from the F-35 Program and also the claim that S-400 system would jeopardize the F-35s is baseless.
The fact that our proposal to form a working group with the participation of NATO on this issue has been left unanswered, is the most obvious evidence of the prejudice on the U.S. side and the lack of will to resolve the issue in good faith.
The U.S. should display commitment to its friendship with Turkey not only in rhetoric, but through action and particularly in the fight against DEASH, PKK/PYD/YPG and FETÖ terrorist organizations.”
The Foreign Ministry statement further said that US President Donald Trump had completely walked back on agreements made with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 Osaka Summit that took place on June 28-29th.
This decision marks a significant failure of US international policy, which is pushing Turkey away from the Washington-led establishment.
This is further reinforced by the recent EU decision to sanction the country for drilling off the coast of Cyprus. The drilling is neither new, nor surprising and it is obviously used as a method of indirect pressure of the US..
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In recent weeks, several years of US international policy appear to be proving as at least a partiral failure. Korea and Japan are at odds over sanctions and WW2 reparations. Many countries are beginning to open their eyes towards the Iran “charade.” The US-backed opposition in Venezuela has all but lost all hope of regime change.
Russia was allowed back into the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which primarily the US (which isn’t even a member) and Ukraine antagonized, to no avail.
Through its recent policy all that the US apparently is achieving is to undermine its own aspirations of grandeur and dominance, by pushing established allies such as Turkey towards Russia.
It’s harsh policy towards China is also pushing it towards Russia, which, ultimately, couldn’t be entirely blamed on US international policy, since US-Chinese relations were never that “warm.”
The result is becoming more and more apparent – allies are slowly vanishing and investment in propaganda both in the US and outside of it, through media and various reports based on thin air, is on the rise.
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Many cotries signed up for F35 before it was known just how problematic it would become. Many countries would likely be happy to get out of the deal now, but their position of US vassal state prevents them from doing so. Turkey found an elegant way out of it. They got the S400 and let the US them self to remove Turky from the F35 deal.
will turkey be repaid the money already paid or will the disintegrating states of A, in customary manner, lay their greedy hands on it. would think so even if dunny the dunce managed to flog the f35 designed for turkey to japan when he was over there on the g20 meeting. otherwise, turkey should be happy to get out from under the disintegrating states of A and find a new and better side that is more attuned to the middle east and what is needed there, something nato and the disintegrated states of Acan’t provide. close the incirlik airbase to nato and the head terrorist and stop anything anything, such as the nukes stored there, leaving the airbase. just close it down. nothing much nato can do about it.
Trump will pay damages to Turkey for breaching the contract.
Who said he will?
True although many knew it was useless even from early days and were simply vassals who did what they were told as you say.
Great show this conflict with dönmeh Erdogan. What’s next?
Not donmeh but a Descendant of one of the last freedom fighters of the native Greeks of what is now Turkey. So he is a Janissary proper.The donmeh are outwardly Moslem Turks but secretly Jewish ,the Janissaries were brainwashed completely to Islam from Christianity.
Lost to Christendom . He was thus Born of force-converted Christians too invested in their Turkishness to change. His great great grandpa was the freedom fighter and was force converted in the last great wave of forced conversions before the Asia Minor Catstrophe from 1913-1923.
In August 2003 Erdogan made a state visit into Georgia gave a speach that his Familie moved from Georgia to Rize Türkey. Family registries in Georgia apperently confirm this.
‘In 2003, Erdoğan stated that he has Georgian ancestry, more specifically, his ancestors were ethnic Laz. The grandfather was likewise called Recep, he lived in Bagata, up to 1878, and his father, great-grandfather of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in turn, was a local imam for many years. Per journalistic investigation held by OdaTV in 2009, his grandfather’s nickname “Bakatalı” is claimed to be originating from the village of Bagata, today in the Tskhinvali District of South Ossetia.[5] After the war of 1877–78, when Batumi became part of the Russian Empire, this Recep emigrated to the city of Rize, where he was known as “Bagatlı Recep”. He died during the First World War, in 1916, while fighting against Russian forces advancing towards Rize. However, in a 2014 NTV interview, he denied having ancestry from Georgia, stating “They have said that I am Georgian…forgive me for saying this…even much uglier things, they have even called me an Armenian, but I am Turkish.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_and_career_of_Recep_Tayyip_Erdo%C4%9Fan
There is nothing about Janissaries, who where by the way always castrated – and could therefore not have descendants. What wiki does not say is one word about his Greek dad – or, like some say, about his jewish mother. This guy here wrote a for him very deadly book about Erdogan:
‘Author Ergun Poyraz, a Turkish wrote a bestselling book, The Children of Moses which is why he was 08/05/2013 sentenced to 29 years in prison for espionage against the Turkish government and he was later murdered 22 April, 2016. Ergun Poyraz reveals in his book The Children of Moses, that the current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a crypto jew.’ https://blogit.mvlehti.net/eurostokolhoosi/2016/07/17/turkish-crypto-jew-president-erdogan-destroying-europe/
PS The Jung-Turks where also in the beginning ‘freedom fighters’, but in fact they where a disguised crypto jewish/dönmeh movement…
Wiki is not a definitive all-knowing source. He may in fact have Muslim force-converted Georgian ancestry as well. Turkish sources have mentioned that family records show his great grandpa was a Dimitris bakatoglou who was a freedom fighter against the Ottoman Turks . Erdogan’s ancestral village is a rumcha ,(pontic Greek speaking village) close to Rizounta (Rize). His grandpa immigrated to Constantinople and changed their surname to Erdogan to distance themselves from the Greek associated Bakatoglou surname . It is not unheard of for Turks to hide their recent Jewish ,Armenian or Greek origins just as it was not unheard of for pale- skinned quadroons and octoroons to hide their black ancestry in the USA to get ahead and/ or survive.Most of Erdogan’s cabinet are Black Sea Greek forced-converts grandchildren.
Many past Turk politicians have openly mentioned they are the grandchildren of Greek speaking once-Christians and some of them still speak Greek amongst family and when back in their ancestral villages. Ie Mesut Yilmaz is just one of them. So it is entirely possible that he may have Georgian Muslim forebears as well who married into and with forced -convert Greeks. I did use Janissaries figuratively and they were massacred in 1826 from memory .
I know about the crypto Jews and youngTurks and agree with you regarding the Donmeh otherwise.
Before Erdogan there were 2 options an F-35 a failed fighter jet and a combat tested air defence system S-400. Erdogan has selected the right option the S-400 air defence system.
If any country has this S-400 system then F-35 and F-22 will be not take off in the air because it will perfectly make the entire region no fly zone. Never trust US and European states.
We don’t know if the S-400 can take out the F-35, and the US probably wants it that way. But yes, Erdogan finally made a correct decision.
I agree. Both The US and Russia do not want an F35 to meet with an S400 unless it is in war ! A real war! Why? Because both are scared of losing money in business. Both are scared that the hype for both the systems will be shown up by real world failures!
Us is scared the F35 will be shot down and thus it loses billions and is not even in a war and the same for Russia. It is scared that it’s S400 will fail and it will lose business without really being in a war.
It is business!
Great way to win Turkeys trust and loyalty… penalise them for acting like a sovereign independent nation.
Uncle Sham shooting himself in the foot, as usual.
Wonderful development for JSC Sukhoi Company and Shenyang Aerospace Corporation.
Sweden might enjoy this opportunity too.
The Turks know what they are doing. Even the Pentagon has lost faith in the F-35, opting to buy F-15X and fewer F-35’s even though they are the same price.
I’ll bet all the Russians had to do to make the sale was show the Turks sensor data gathered by the S-400 in Syria. They would have a record of all the TLAM and glide bomb attacks on Syria as well as on US F-22’s and Israeli F-35’s operations.
The Pentagon can’t dump the F-35 altogether because “too big to fail” but it’s pretty obvious they need reliable aircraft that work and air defences have caught up with ‘stealth’ after 40 years.
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/air-force-outlines-future-goals-plans-to-buy-fewer-f-35s-than-originally-thought-1.573213
Grumpy? “I’ll bet all the Russians had to do to make the sale was show the Turks sensor data gathered by the S-400 in Syria. They would have a record of all the TLAM and glide bomb attacks on Syria as well as on US F-22’s and Israeli F-35’s operations.”
What do you mean?
Evidence as to the S-400’s capabilities.
Yes I understand but that only shows what the s400 has sensed. It can’t tell us yet whether it can reliably shoot off a missile and take that object out. . It also would have no sensor data on anF35 yet or of objects it may not have sensed at all.ie missiles it coyldn-t see coming.
Exception may be the Israeli F35 that supposedly had a bird strike? Yeh right!!
“It also would have no sensor data on anF35 yet”
We don’t know that. Russian assets may have eyes on Israeli air bases so they know when F-35’s take off and land. The S-400 radar covers northern Israel. if you can confirm an F-35 is in the air then you would have a pretty good idea of whether or not you can track them. The USA is also flying F-35’s near the S-400 unit at Kalingrad as well as F-22’s in Syria and over Europe.
The Russians would have had to have shown the Turks some pretty good evidence that the S-400 can track and kill these advanced aircraft in order for the Turks to risk getting kicked out of the F-35 program, NATO and US sanctions over it’s purchase. Sanctions alone will cost the Turks more than the purchase price so it better be worth the money.
Well, if Turkey goes with the Russian jets, it will have superior planes, for a fraction of the price. Together with one of the best missile defence systems around. Was it Israel who were freaking out with regards the S-400, owing to obvious reasons, or was it the US?
Should be interesting if they place one of the systems over in Cyprus, whilst the pillagers are trying their best to fleece the new found oil from Cyprus.
How will the S-400 fit into the Greater Israel Project?
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Kissinger – ‘Who controls Cyprus, Crete and Malta, control the world’.
This is not great advertisement for the value of US contracts. But it is probably less damaging than a refund scandal, when Turkey can demonstrate, that the F35 does not preform as promised. So turkey avoids a bad deal. And the Jobs the US foreign ministry mentioned, can be as well created with a S-400 joint production.
If a member of NATO is allowed to buy Russian weapons then every member of NATO should be allowed to buy Russian weapons. Either that or kick the pesky turks out of NATO.
Greece has an s300? And is a member of Nato. It inherited from Cyprus when bulkyboy Turkey cried to Nato . Of course Nato caved because zioyankerstan and Nato always cave to Turcos.
S 300 is one thing and S 400 is another.
We either all allowed to get the same or nobody gets nothing. But all it is in the end of the day is companies trying to make profit here…just as it always was.
Sure. I agree with you.
dont forget, that Erdogan cant fully trust his own airforce, as we have seen during the coup in 2016.- american missiles cannot shoot down american planes, so he had to buy something more dedicated. here he goes with the russian S-400 systems…
Why can’t shoot down American planes? Are you saying his existing American patriots or whatever could not shoot down his own Airforce jets because they are automatically locked out by software in them before they were shipped to Turkey? Even back in 2016?
Two things. One ,Turkey unveiled a mock-up of a native built F35 -type aircraft recently saying it will build it soon . Yet why do that when it can buy Russian sukhois or Chinese copies of the F35 anyway?
Also ,Russia and Turkey have checkmated The US vassals in Nato and Europe ,namely Greece and Cyprus . With the S400 inTurkey no one will go and help Greece and Cyprus in the event of war over Turkey stealing their natural gas reserves ,which is reputed to be enormous!
I see the Us eclipsed everywhere. It is the beginning of the end. So Turkey who was mollycoddled by the US for one hundred years ,to the detriment of the Christians in Europe will now be mollycoddled by Russia for one hundred years to the detriment of Christian Europe.
Who says crime doesn’t pay? Tell that to the slaughtered Christians of the Near and Middle East.