ANKARA — Turkey has responded to the United States’ throwing it out of the F-35 program with almost nonchalance.
US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan had announced that Turkey would have to leave the program to build and buy the F-35 stealth fighter on July 31 unless Ankara canceled its purchase of Russian S-400 air defense missiles. The decision means Turkey will not only forfeit the four F-35s it has bought, but it will also lose billions of dollars in revenue for manufacturing components of the state-of-the-art aircraft. Turkish pilots and other personnel involved in the program will also have to leave the United States by the end of next month.
