Turkey requests to buy 40 US F-16 fighter planes
Just last week Erdogan boasted about potential new defense deals with Russia, including aircraft purchases.
Turkey has requested to purchase 40 US-made F-16 fighter jets and dozens of modernization kits for aircraft it already owns, according to reports in both the Greek and the Turkish press.
News of the request, which has not been publicly confirmed by the US State Department, comes just days after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government was planning to expand defense ties with Russia.
The United States kicked Turkey out of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in 2019 after NATO ally Ankara purchased Russia’s S-400 air defense system. US officials have said the Russian hardware poses a threat to the security of the technology included in the Lockheed-Martin-made F-35.
Erdogan has increasingly sought to play on his relationship with Russia to gain concessions from Washington, but the current US administration is having little of it.
