The Biden administration last Friday evening announced it has officially approved the potential $23 billion deal with Turkey for F-16 fighter jets and an $8.6 billion sale of F-35 aircraft to Greece.
The U.S. decision to move forward on the F-16 foreign military sale with Turkey had been held up due to human rights concerns from some lawmakers and Ankara’s delay in ratifying Sweden’s bid to join NATO, which it officially approved earlier in the week.
“My approval of Turkey’s request to purchase F-16 aircraft has been contingent on Turkish approval of Sweden’s NATO membership. But make no mistake: this was not a decision I came to lightly. While Turkey plays a critical role in the region as a NATO ally, there is an urgent need for improvement on its human rights record, including the unjust imprisonment of journalists and civil society leaders, better cooperation on holding Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine and on lowering the temperature in its rhetoric about the Middle East,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
The $23 billion deal with Turkey includes the sale of 40 new Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built F-16s to Ankara and upgrades to modernize 79 F-16s in its current fleet.
The new FMS case with Turkey also includes General Electric [GE] F110 engines, electronic warfare systems, guided missile launchers, Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods, MIDS-JTRS radios, AMRAAM, HARM and Sidewinder missiles and additional equipment. RTX [RTX] supplies the missiles and the radios are supplied by Data Link Solutions, a joint venture between BAE Systems and RTX’s Collins Aerospace segment.
“The proposed sale will allow Türkiye to expand and modernize its fleet of F-16 aircraft as older F-16 aircraft approach the end of their service life. These new and refurbished aircraft will provide Türkiye with a fleet of modernized multi-role combat aircraft to enable it to provide for the defense of its airspace, contribute to NATO missions to preserve regional security and defend NATO Allies, and maintain interoperability with U.S. and NATO forces,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement.
Lawmakers had also previously pressed the Biden administration to detail concrete steps to ensure Turkey would not use the new F-16s for territorial overflights of Greece before approving the deal (Defense Daily, July 14 2022).
After first requesting the purchase of Lockheed Martin-built F-35s in June 2022, the new $8.6 billion FMS case with Greece covers the sale of 40-35As and 42 Pratt & Whitney F135 engines. Pratt is an operating segment of RTX.
The new deal with Greece also includes full mission simulators and system trainers, electronic warfare systems, threat detection, tracking and targeting systems, logistics support and classified software development, according to the DSCA.
“The proposed sale will allow Greece to modernize its air force and improve Greece’s ability to provide for the defense of its airspace, contribute to NATO missions to preserve regional security and defend NATO Allies, and maintain interoperability with U.S. and NATO forces. The F-35 will offset the increasing obsolescence of other Hellenic Air Force aircraft such as the F-4 and Mirage 2000,” the DSCA said.
Approval of the F-35 FMS case follows the State Department’s announcement in December that the U.S. had signed off on a potential $1.95 billion deal with Greece for 35 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters (Defense Daily, Dec. 15).
Following Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s accession to become the 32nd member nation of NATO, Hungary is the last country remaining that needs to sign off on Stockholm’s bid before it can officially join the alliance (Defense Daily, Jan. 26).
“This week’s heightened Hungarian obstruction of Sweden’s path forward to NATO, however, means that the Turkish action is not yet a moment to celebrate the overdue expansion of NATO. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has once again shown himself to be the least reliable member of NATO, in addition to playing the role of spoiler in the European Union’s effort to provide much-needed economic assistance to Ukraine,” Cardin said.
Last April, the U.S. approved a potential $250 million deal with Turkey covering avionics upgrades for its current fleet of F-16 fighter jets (Defense Daily, April 17, 2023).