ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey has cut its planned $23 billion purchase of an F-16 fighter jet package from the United States and scrapped the purchase of 79 modernization kits for its existing fleet, Defense Minister Yasar Guler said late on Tuesday.
NATO member Turkey struck a deal earlier this year to purchase 40 F-16 fighter jets and 79 modernization kits for its existing F-16s from the United States, after a long-delayed process.
“An initial payment has been made for the purchase of the F-16 Block-70. A payment of $1.4 billion has been made. With this we will buy 40 F-16 Block-70 Viper and we will buy 79 modernization kits. ,” Guler told a parliamentary hearing.
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“We have given up on this 79. This is why we gave up: our Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) facilities are capable of carrying out this modernization on their own, so we deferred it to them,” he said.
The sale of the 40 new Lockheed Martin F-16 jets and their ammunition will cost Turkey about $7 billion, Guler added.
Turkey placed its order in October 2021, two years after the United States kicked the country out of the fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet program over its purchase of a Russian missile defense system.
Turkey wants to re-enter the F-35 program and buy 40 new F-35 jets, Guler also said.
Turkey is one of the largest operators of F-16s, with a fleet consisting of more than 200 older Block 30, 40 and 50 models.
Ankara is also interested in purchasing Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets built by a consortium of Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain.
It is also developing its own fighter jet, KAAN.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
