Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke about the F-35 during a defense industry fair in Istanbul: “without the contribution of Turkey, the development project of the F-35 multi-role fighter is doomed to failure.
In recent weeks, the United States has threatened to exclude Ankara from the project if it were to equip itself with the Russian S-400 missile defense system, considered by the Pentagon to be "incompatible" with NATO weapons systems. "Those who try to exclude us from a project we are partners in the production cannot see beyond their noses," said Erdogan, according to whom Turkey "does not and will not accept any defense taxation". Not least because, he added, the country is making rapid progress in producing its own air defense system. "I am explicitly saying that the F-35 project is doomed to complete failure if Turkey is excluded from it." Earlier, the spokesman for the Turkish president, Ibrahim Kalin, recalled that Ankara was not only a customer of the F-35, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, but also a partner in the development program.
Yesterday, US President Donald Trump and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on the phone about the S-400 and F-35. The establishment of a joint technical table is being considered. The Ankara presidency made it known in a statement, according to which the two leaders also had a discussion on the latest developments in Syria and shared the need to advance bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism. The Pentagon's fear is that through Turkey-based S-400 batteries, Russia could gain crucial information about fifth-generation F-35 fighters and their vulnerabilities. Despite such pressure, Erdogan has always confirmed that he does not want to give up the purchase of the S-400s, blaming the problem for the refusal of the United States to sell their latest generation Patriot defense systems to Ankara. A news that has no basis as the US defense department had proposed to Ankara the purchase of the Patriot system at an advantageous price, the term of the offer expired last March.