As you remember, Turkish – US relations have been deteriorated since 15 July 2016 coup attempt. Then Turkey has procured S400 surface to air defense system from Russia which even more deteriorated the relations. This move has been accepted as not friendly policy by US and Turkey was expelled from the F-35 Air Fighter Project although Ankara is one of the main partner since the beginning. Meanwhile Turkey has claimed that Turkey will successfully rationalize the TFX Air Fighter by 2023 and will start manufacturing by 2030. However President Erdogan has made a very interesting statement that Turkey is willing to procure F-16 from US although Senate will likely to reject such procurement contract. But why Turkey wants to buy F-16 now?
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You might remember that Turkey made a statement that Turkey would change 1200 parts of some 40-80 F-16s and will extend their life time till 2040 when Turkey will be ready to replace F-16s by its TFX air fighters. During September 2021, Turkey announced its intension to buy new F-16Moreover, it is likely that Turkey will ask some of its F-16s parts to be replenished.
It is likely that it is US has not given any content to Turkey to replace its parts. Moreover, if Turkey wants to do so, it will bring additional undeclared sanctions to Turkey especially on future military procurement contract. Turkey is aware that its F-16 fleet is getting older and news to be replaced. Since Turkey has no hope to join into FX-35, Ankara is forced to ask for F-16s since TFX even if the air jet will be ready by 2023 which is a big question, will be ready to replace F-16s following 2030 at the earliest. Therefore, Ankara changed its tone to Washington and ask for F-16. It is unclear how Senate will react to this but it will not be surprising to attach some harsh conditions even if Senate will allow such procurement.
Contradicted statement from Ankara about the timeliness of TFX programme confuses the international arena as well as Turkish public. It is obvious that such procurement demonstrates the need for Turkish Air Force (TAF) to strengthen its abilities but also the necessity to replace the aging F-16s. Therefore, TFX is a crucial to TAF.
Turkey has the manpower resources to rationalize the air jet engine by 2023 but the most important question is either it has the budget for it. Even if the primary version might be ready by 2023, the air jet engine will require many hours and tests to pass in order to be ready for the air fighter by 2030. For that it requires billions of dollars. While Turkish economy deters greatly, its success will depend hugely on how the government will approach the economic problem in future.
