ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey has scaled back its $23 billion plan to acquire F-16 fighter jets from the United States, scrapping the purchase of 79 modernization kits for its existing fleet, Defense Minister Yasar Guler said late on Tuesday.
NATO member Turkey earlier this year got an agreement to buy 40 F-16 fighter jets and 79 of its modern F-16s from the United States, after a long delay.
“The initial purchase price for the F-16 Block-70 was paid. $1.4 billion was paid. With this we will buy 40 F-16 Block-70 Viper and we would buy 79 modern ones. ,” Guler told the parliament.
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“We gave up on this 79. That’s why we left: Our Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) facilities can do this modernization themselves, so we counted on it,” he said.
The sale of 40 new Lockheed Martin F-16 jets and weapons for them will cost Turkey another 7 billion dollars, Guler added.
Turkey placed its order in October 2021, two years after the United States kicked the country out of the fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet program over its purchase of the Russian defense system.
Turkey wants to rejoin the F-35 program and buy 40 new F-35 jets, Guler also said.
Turkey is one of the largest users of F-16s, with its fleet consisting of more than 200 Block 30, 40 and 50 models.
Ankara is also interested in buying Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets, built by a consortium of Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain.
It is also developing its own fighter jet, the KAAN.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Christopher Cushing)