ISTANBUL – ANSWER. After condemnation of Turkish flights CongressMinister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu decided to emphasize that the amendments containing the NDAA provisions were excluded from the US defense budget bill sale of F-16 from Washington in Anchor. “The good news is that there is no negative term in the final text to be voted on. We welcome this positively,” said Cavusoglu and expressed the hope that soon “there will be some solution to the issue of deliveries of F-16s from Turkey.”

The Turkish Foreign Minister stated that “this bill must also be approved for the purchase of F-16s and their modernization must be completed as a process. This is for the benefit of everyone. We have already said that it makes no sense to buy them conditionally.”

On the issue of militants, there are two main objectives of the Turkish government. Firstly, there are no conditions binding Ankara to use the F-16, and secondly, and most importantly, the acceleration of procedures for launching a modernization program and supplying specific fighters.

“We have said before that it makes no sense to buy them conditionally,” the Turkish foreign minister said of the American F-16s.

Ankara’s plan is to buy 40 new F-16 Block 70 Vipers and upgrade the 80 more F-16s it has to the same level. As Turkish government officials said, they hope that in the first half of 2023, the US will be able to approve a program to start procedures. However, Turkish military analysts emphasize that if the program is approved, the delivery of the necessary “kits” for the modernization of fighters and the entire preparation process will take many months, and predict that the first modernized fighters can be delivered in the near future. like 2025. While the new F-16s say they could arrive after 2026. Analysts emphasize that by then Greece will have received 24 Rafales, will be upgraded and will have at least 48 F-16 Viper fighters, which will be technologically superior to what Turkey has.

The Turkish Air Force’s long-term plan to replace the F-16 was “derailed” by its exclusion from the joint production and purchase program for 100 F-35s. Ankara’s decision to acquire Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft system led the US to apply CAATSA sanctions and remove it from the program.

The Turkish Air Force, besides the issue of fighters, also faced the problem of the adequacy of the pilots, as many of them, as well as representatives of the Air Force, were expelled from the armed forces on charges of participating in the 2016 coup attempt and their relationship with the FETO organization. The Turkish Air Force had such gaps that, as the country’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said, “one pilot did the work of five pilots for us.”