Through the State Department’s social networks, The United States government confirmed the sale of new F-16 Block 70 fighters to equip the Turkish Air Force. The news definitively puts an end to a military equipment sale operation plagued by back-and-forth between the American and Turkish governments.
For years, the Turkish government had been requesting the purchase of new F-16 Block 70 fighters from the United States, along with modernization packages for its current fleet of Fighting Falcon Block 50. The tense relations with Greece, the acquisition of defense systems S400 aircraft to Russia, as well as the opposition of key members of the US Congress and the expulsion of the F-35 program, caused the negotiations to be delayed and bogged down. The entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO, which required the unanimous approval of the members of the Atlantic alliance, was one of the cards that Turkey played to unblock the operation.
With this background, and with the approval of the government and parliament of Turkey for the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO, it was generated at the beginning of last January that The United States government will authorize the sale of 40 new F-16 Block 70 fighters, along with 79 new modernization kits for the F-16 Block 50 of the Turkish Air Force, for a value of US$ 23,000 million.
In turn, the operation authorized by the State Department includes the provision of an important weapons package for the Turkish Vipers, which is made up of: 952 AMRAAM AIM-120C-8 and 401 AIM-9X Block II air-to-air missiles, such as AGM-88E anti-radiation missiles, AN/AAQ-33 SNIPER targeting pods, GBU-39/B gliding bombsto name a few components.
Although the State Department statement of June 5 does not provide further details, the confirmation of the sale implicitly means the approval of the United States Congress and the soon formalization of a contract with Lockheed Martin. To date, the first F-16 Block 70s destined for the Bahrain and Slovak Air Forces are leaving the Lockheed Martin production lines located in Greenville, South Carolina; registering the start of manufacturing of the Viper intended to equip the Bulgarian Air Force. Progress has also been made in modernization programs for the aforementioned standard, tas and how the cases of Taiwan and Greece show, which have been carried out through local companies with the assistance of the American firm.
Finally, although the modernization kits are not mentioned, this upgrade program to Block 70, based on the January authorization, will be carried out by the company TUSAŞ (Turkish Aerospace Industry). This is because the Turkish aerospace company has vast experience in the assembly of the F-16 acquired in the 1980s, as well as in the manufacture of fighter components and the implementation of the update and modernization program, as the ÖZGÜR for the Fighting Falcon of Block 30.
*Photographs used for illustration.
You may be interested The second flight of the new TAI KAAN stealth fighter of the Turkish Air Force is recorded
