Turkey has dropped its intention to buy U.S. F-35 fighter jets. Why?
HSMilitarycom: A few days ago the U.S. asked Turkey to send S-400 air defense systems purchased from Russia to be delivered to Ukraine, in exchange for Turkey getting U.S. F-35s, in response to this Turkey rejected the U.S. intention.
Turkish Defense Industry President Ismail Demir said the Patriot missile defense system had been removed from the agenda.
Turkey has no plans to acquire the U.S.-made Patriot missile system and will no longer seek to buy F-35 fighter jets, given the issue is closed after Washington excluded Ankara from a multi-national program to develop the aircraft in 2019.
After years of unproductive negotiations with the U.S. to acquire the Patriots, Turkey as a NATO member chose Russia's S-400 system, signing a $2.5 billion deal for four batteries in 2017, which was delivered two years later.
Washington vehemently rejected the sale, claiming that the S-400 is incompatible with other NATO systems and could even compromise security.
The U.S. responded to Turkey's decision by removing Turkey from the F-35 program despite years of cooperation in developing fighter jets and then even imposing sanctions on a number of Turkish officials.
Although Turkey has demanded reimbursement after spending $1.4 billion on the aircraft and denouncing the sanctions as unfair, Demir said the two sides were unlikely to reach an agreement on the F-35s, and that the issue was now closed.
Ankara is currently focused on developing its own aircraft and is determined to modernize the US-made F-16.
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