F-35s for Turkey

[adroth]

U.S. official warns Turkey on F-35 deal over Russia system
Patricia Zengerle
3 MIN READ

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-turkey-fighterjets/u-s-official-warns-turkey-on-f-35-deal-over-russia-system-idUSKBN1JM2EM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. State Department official warned Turkey on Tuesday that its purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets would be jeopardized if it does not drop a plan to buy S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.

If it buys the system, Turkey would also be subject to sanctions under a bill President Donald Trump signed into law last summer, Wess Mitchell, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, testified in the Senate.

That sweeping sanctions law, known as CAATSA, seeks to punish companies that do business with Russia’s defense industry.

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Lockheed Martin held a ceremony last week to mark the “rollout” of the first F-35 jet for Turkey, but that aircraft was headed for Arizona, where F-35 training takes place.

Delivery of the jets into Turkey is not expected until next year.

[adroth]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-05/lockheed-s-f-35-has-a-turkey-problem

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A Risk to Supplies?

If the U.S. blocks the jet deal, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could cut off the flow of parts from his country. “If the Turkish supply chain was disrupted today, it would result in an aircraft production break, delaying delivery of 50-75 jets and would take approximately 18-24 months to re-source parts,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis wrote in July in a letter to Congress. Erdogan has said little about how he might respond. Mattis must submit a report to Congress by mid-November on the potential impact of any change to Turkey’s participation. Lockheed says for now the sale to the Turks is on track.

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[Ayoshi]

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28832/turkey-reportedly-hoarding-spare-f-16-parts-as-it-faces-sanctions-over-s-400-purchases


The first completed F-35A Joint Strike Fighter for Turkey at a rollout ceremony in June 2018. ANADOLU AGENCY

[Ayoshi]

https://news.usni.org/2019/07/17/turkey-formally-dropped-from-f-35-program-dod-estimates-500m-to-retool-supply-chain

Turkey Formally Dropped From F-35 Program; DoD Estimates $500M to Retool Supply Chain
July 17, 2019 7:22 PM

Turkey was set to not only buy 100 of the F-35A variants of the fighter but also was part of the larger international industrial base for the program.

“Turkey will certainly and regrettably lose jobs and future economic opportunities from this decision. It will no longer receive more than $9 billion in projected workshare related to the F-35 over the life of the program,” Lord said. “Turkey made more than 900 parts for the F-35 and had been assigned more than $1 billion in industrial participation across 10 Turkish suppliers.”

Lord said that the Defense Department had set aside $500 to 600 million in “non-reoccurring engineering” to retool the industrial base to make up for the loss of Turkish companies in the program. The industrial base would begin a “deliberate” process of removing Turkey for the supply chain by March. For the time being, the replacement suppliers will be American.

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Additionally, about 25 Turkish pilots and maintainers assigned to the program were informed on Wednesday they would no longer given access to the spaces at the F-35 Joint Program Office and were set to return to Turkey.

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Over the last several years, Russia has been working to perfect using different types of lower-frequency radars to provide targeting-quality tracks of stealthy aircraft – particularly the F-22 Raptor and the F-35. Pentagon reasoning, USNI News understands, was that it would be an unacceptable risk to allow a Russian radar to gather a treasure trove of signals intelligence data from the F-35s that Turkey would own and operate.

[Ayoshi]

https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/defence-notes/mspo-2019-turkish-f-35-production-aircraft-left-wi/

MSPO 2019: Turkish F-35 production aircraft left without a home
3rd September 2019 - 15:29 GMT

The Pentagon's decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 programme has since left production made aircraft readied for Ankara without an owner.

Lockheed Martin has now delivered four of the Turkish aircraft to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, but in line with a US DoD policy to remove the customer from the fighter jet effort - following acquisition of the S-400 air defence system - the manufacturer will offer them for resale.

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Alongside the four Turkish aircraft already delivered, two more are at a final assembly stage, ‘with the remainder in production flow’ Ulmer told Shephard.

Though there was no firm indication from the manufacturer of likely candidates to buy the aircraft, F-35 proposals across a number of European procurement programmes including Finland and Switzerland, alongside a request to buy from Poland bode well for future business.