Defense Secretary Mark Esper said today the United States would “consider” allowing Turkey back into the F-35 program if Ankara formally abandoned the Russian S-400 system.
In the days leading up to the Donald Trump administration’s decision to kick Turkey out of the fighter jet program in July, after Turkey took in the $2.5 billion S-400, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had insisted that Ankara could duck US sanctions by moving the air defense system out of the country.