Aircraft

The Turkish and US governments have signed a letter of offer and acceptance covering the production of a further 30 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 50+ fighters for the Turkish air force. To be delivered from mid-2011 under a deal worth $1.8 billion, the aircraft will undergo final assembly in Ankara by Tusas Aerospace Industries, which has previously delivered over 200 F-16s to Turkey.

Turkey’s new aircraft will be powered by General Electric F110-129 engines – 42 of which are to be assembled by Turkish Engine Industries – and equipped with Northrop Grumman’s APG-68(V)9 radar. The nation’s legacy fleet of F-16s will also be upgraded to the same configuration under a separate modernisation deal agreed with Lockheed in 2005.

Introduced into service from 1987, Turkey’s F-16 fleet will be joined by the Lockheed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from around 2014, says defence minister Vecdî Gönül. The Turkish air force’s current F-16 fleet comprises 176 single-seat Cs and 43 two-seat Ds, according to Flight’s MiliCAS database.