F-35 Lightning II News

October 25, 2006 (by Lieven Dewitte) - The Turkish Air Force will likely select the U.S. F-35 Lightning II as its next generation fighter, and not the Eurofighter Typhoon. Turkey plans to procure nearly 100 fighters over the next 15 years.
The final decision from the Turkish government is expected by the end of this year, but the outcome is extremely likely given the military's influential position.

In order to replace its F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-4 Phantom combat aircraft, the Turkish government has been considering two options for its next generation fighter project: either a fleet of F-35 aircraft, or a mix of F-35s and Typhoons. The F-35 enables the Turkish Air Force to share logistics, training systems, tactics and strategies with western alliances and coalitions.

Turkey is looking for sizeable compensation deals in the form of production contracts to local companies, worth up to $5 billion. Turkey has been a Level 3 partner of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) development program since July 11, 2002.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine multi-role canard-delta strike fighter aircraft, designed and built by a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers formed in 1983. The project has been named and renamed a number of times since its inception, having been known as EFA (European Fighter Aircraft), Eurofighter, EF2000 (Eurofighter 2000), and most recently Typhoon.

Last week the U.S. Congress has formally approved a planned sale to the Turkish Air Force of 30 advanced F-16 block 50 fighter aircraft and related equipment and services, worth up to $2.9 billion.