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| The Grand Turk |
| Turkey seeks US-independent airpower |
| 2011-02-21 |
| Turkey now is seeking to go for an ambitious national program to design, develop and produce fighter jets, a process in which the country still will need foreign help. With the program, Ankara aims to build an airpower partly independent from U.S. technology and control, analysts here have said. Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül said in December that Turkey would develop and manufacture its own fighter aircraft, either by itself or in cooperation with another country. Gönül at the time said Turkey may cooperate with South Korea, but implied that this is not a strong possibility. Procurement officials later said the Korean option was not likely because Seoul at this point does not agree to an equal partnership. If successful, the program will earn Turkey an airpower parallel to its present and future U.S.-led fleet. Turkey's present fleet mostly is based on the U.S. F-16. Turkey also is a partner in the U.S.-led multinational consortium Joint Strike Fighter, or JSF, that will build the F-25 Lightning II fighter. Ankara plans to buy up to 116 F-35s, worth nearly $15 billion over the next 15 years. Many Turkish companies are members of the JSF consortium of nine Western nations, and are producing parts for the aircraft. Turkey also will receive 30 modern F-16 Block 50s from Lockheed Martin, also the F-35′s top maker, as a stop-gap solution until the F-35 deliveries begin around 2015. Maybe they can partner with Iran. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #9 WM, the Turks, before they decided to break with Israel bought 10 Heron TPs from IAI and are trying to buy armed MQ-9 Reapers from the US. The Turkish government, through the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM), has been trying for years to make their own. |
| Posted by: rwv 2011-02-21 21:39 |
| #8 why do they want to do fighter jets? All the great powers have modern air forces with capable fighters. If the Turks have one, they will be a great power too, right? It's a cargo cult sort of thing. And you can't just buy planes from the infidels because it would point out the utter lameness of the Islamic aerospace industry. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2011-02-21 20:11 |
| #7 As the developed world moves toward UCAVs and UAVs why do they want to do fighter jets? |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-02-21 19:14 |
| #6 The Turks were very good allies and fierce fighters in the Korean War. We had air bases in Turkey for sometime. That has changed somewhere along the way. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-02-21 15:36 |
| #5 Of course, there is their national ego. So few countries adjust gracefully to being the rump remaining of a once-powerful empire. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-02-21 10:50 |
| #4 Turkey would be smart to diminish their desire for top of the line airpower. The threat doesn't justify it. The enormous cost of gearing up an indigenous high tech airpower industry will be a massive burden on their economy. Of course, there is their national ego. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2011-02-21 10:45 |
| #3 It won't be Israel... and probably not India now the Hinjoos are so tight. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-02-21 10:28 |
| #2 All else being equal, the Turks would be wise to do this. Mostly because the US has become so fickle and unreliable about providing technology, invariably linking it with other policy agenda, as well as doing so at sky high prices. Even if they can't produce an aircraft as good as the F-16 at first, it will put them on the track to do so in the future, it will cost far less, have no strings attached, and if it is reasonably good and has a low price, they could offer it for export as well. Their GDP is somewhere between $750b and $1T, so they can afford to do this, and they have plenty of competent engineers. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-02-21 09:47 |
| #1 Does Turkey have the capability to support this notion of US airport independence in the next couple of centuries? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-02-21 08:18 |