November 23, 2006 (by Lieven Dewitte) -
Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul was in Pakistan attending the IDEAS 2006 Defense Industry Fair where he met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday.
PAF F-16B block 15 #84606 from the 9th sqn is coming in for landing at Konya AB during exercise Anatolian Eagle held there in June of 2006. [Photo by
Emin Fýndýklý]
Gonul said that they had agreed on a deal to upgrade and modernize
Pakistan's F-16 fighters.
The Turkish Tusas Aerospace Industries (TAI) will handle the work.
TUSAS is an acronym which stands for Tusas Ucak Sanayii AS, or Turkish Aircraft Industries, which is a company owned jointly by Turkish and American shareholders.
According to the Pakistani Daily Times Pakistan Air Chief Air Marshal Rashad Kaleem recently said that the US will begin providing new F-16 jet fighters to Pakistan from December 2008 onwards, and would provide all by 2009-end.
