Turkey is scrapping plans to purchase a large number of upgrade kits for its fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16C fighters from the USA, opting instead to source the modernisation work domestically.
While Ankara plans to still move forward with the purchase of 40 new F-16V fighters from Lockheed, the Turkish government now says it will not go through with a Foreign Military Sales deal to upgrade 79 of its legacy F-16s to the latest Block 70 standard.
Speaking at a parliamentary hearing on 26 November, defence minister Yasar Guler said Ankara has opted to contract with its own state-owned defence manufacturer to perform the F-16 upgrades.
“Our Turkish Aerospace Industries [TAI] facilities are capable of carrying out this modernisation on their own, so we deferred to them,” Guler says.
It is unclear exactly what improvements TAI will undertake on its own. The Block 70 upgrades being purchased by the US Air Force include the new Northrop Grumman APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar, a new mission computer, a modernised cockpit, improved networking capability, new electronic warfare capability, a communications suite upgrade and a new centre display unit.
Guler notes Ankara is still moving forward on the acquisition of new aircraft from Lockheed.
“A payment of $1.4 billion has been made,” Guler says. “With this we will buy 40 F-16 Block 70 Vipers.”
The change is the latest twist in a years-long saga of Turkey attempting to upgrade its fighter capability. Washington ejected its erstwhile NATO ally from the Lockheed F-35 stealth fighter programme in 2019 after Ankara opted to acquire a Russian air defence system.
After Turkey pivoted toward obtaining the less-sensitive F-16V, it still faced substantial political opposition from elected lawmakers in the US Congress, who cited issues ranging from Ankara’s obstruction of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden to the domestic policy record of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
That deadlock finally broke in 2023 at the annual NATO summit, when Ankara agreed in principle to Sweden joining the bloc and the US president pledged support for the F-16V sale. Finland received the necessary assent earlier that year.
When the Turkish parliament approved NATO membership for Sweden in January 2024, US President Joe Biden formally asked Congress to authorise Turkey’s entire $20 billion F-16 package, including the 40 new fighters and 79 upgrade kits.
In a grand bargain, lawmakers simultaneously approved Ankara’s F-16s and a request from Greece to purchase F-35 stealth fighters.
Turkey has long sought to develop its own domestic defence aerospace industry, a signature policy initiative of Erdogan.
TAI is developing a fifth-generation-style fighter called the Kaan, the T929 ATAK II attack helicopter and the Hurjet supersonic trainer.
Istanbul-based Baykar Technologies is actively producing the combat-tested Bayraktar TB2 uncrewed combat aerial vehicle, which has seen frontline service with the Ukrainian armed forces.
The company is also flight testing the carrier-capable TB3 platform, which will operate from Turkey’s first aircraft carrier, the TCG Anadolu. Baykar completed the first TB3 flights from the ski-jump-equipped light carrier earlier this month, including launch and recovery.
