US State Department Greenlights $259M F-16 Avionics Deal To Türkiye
Strait Talk
English - April 20, 2023 09:48 - 10 minutes - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsNews turkey erdogan political affairs middle east discussions interviews politics middle east and africa debates Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
One of the biggest hurdles in US-Turkish relations has been the stalled sale of F-16 fighter jets, that Ankara requested back in October 2021. Being stuck in Congress for a year and half, a small part of the deal could be about to move forward. The US State Department recently approved the sale of F-16 software upgrades to Turkiye, in a deal worth $259 million.
US President Joe Biden has notified Congress, putting the onus on them to officially approve the sale. But the agreement is just a fraction of a much wider package that Turkiye is seeking, which includes 40 F-16 fighters and dozens of modernisation kits, worth about 20 billion dollars. The deal was a compromise after Turkiye was removed by the US from the F-35 fighter programme, due to Washington's complaints that Ankara had purchased air defence systems from Russia. But this latest deal being pushed by President Biden comes after Turkyie's approval of Finland's entry into NATO, and easing tensions with Greece.
Guests:
Jaroslaw Strozyk
Former Director at Polish Military Intelligence
Ahmet Keser
Associate Professor at Hasan Kalyoncu University