Turkey may drop bid to purchase F-16s from US due to high cost

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
6 Mar 2023 20:47

Due to the US' reluctance to boost Turkey's military autonomy, relations between Turkey and the US have been severely deteriorated over recent months.

Greek Fighter Jets F-16 Viper, fly over Tanagra air force base about 74 kilometers (46 miles) north of Athens, Greece, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022 (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

A member of Turkey's Presidential Security and Foreign Policies Council told Sputnik in an interview today that Turkey is considering annulling the decision to purchase F-16 fighter jets from the US due to their excruciating high cost and the availability of more modern versions on the market.

Since October 2021, Turkey has been pushing the request to purchase F-16 fighter jets from the US due to its own fleet being outdated and the new security challenges that the country is currently facing - particularly with regard to Greece.

Due to the US' reluctance to boost Turkey's military autonomy, relations between Turkey and the US have severely deteriorated over recent months.

Last month, US State Secretary Antony Blinken said that the US could not sell the fighter jets to Turkey because Congress has still not greenlighted the sale, citing Turkey's feud with Sweden and Finland over their NATO bids as well as territorial issues with Greece over the Aegean sea.

"I believe that after the earthquakes, Turkey will give up asking for F-16 because it is $20 billion cost package," Cagri Erhan told Sputnik.

He said that Ankara had made an immense mistake by asking to buy F-16s, a request which has been repetitively refused by Congress for "some pretext."

He further said that the American jets were outdated and no longer competitive against other fighter aircraft.

"Turkey should immediately make a decision to change its decision from F-16 to some other. For instance, F-35 was on the table. Turkey was expecting from the program [to get F-35]. Now we have other options like the Chinese jet, which was sold to Pakistan, Russian jets, and also the Eurofighter jet," Erhan stated.