At the end of last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President Joe Biden came together at the NATO Leaders Meeting held in Madrid. Many issues were discussed here, from the membership status of Sweden and Finland to the USA’s sale of warplanes to Turkey.
After the meeting, Biden said that he was looking forward to the sale of the F-16 to Turkey. He even said that he would personally meet with the Senate when he returns to the United States. Indeed, this meeting ended and Biden returned to his country. Today, the Senate met and made the final decision.
Will the US sell F-16s to Turkey?
The US said that it created a security gap for itself by using Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 air defense system as an excuse. For this reason, 6 F-35s, for which the delivery ceremony was held, were confiscated while the pilot was continuing their flight training and canceled their sale.
However, it is thought that the reason behind this decision is actually the lobbying activities organized on behalf of the states of Greece and Israel. As Turkey became increasingly independent in the field of defense industry, it was changing the balances in the Aegean and Mediterranean in its favor.
Bayraktar TB2 survived the S-300 missile!
Speaking to the British press, the Ukrainian UAV pilot explained how Bayraktar TB2 SİHA survived after being hit by the S-300 missile.
Since this was an undesirable situation for the USA, which has imposed its own balance on its allies in the region for 50 years, he actually prevented the sale of the F-35 and made sure that Turkey would not exceed the level it wanted as an air power.
But especially because of the Russian threat, NATO’s power needs to be increased from Anatolia to the Balkans and even to the Scandinavian peninsula. For this reason, they see it as a necessity to give F-16s to Turkey, even if they are not F-35s, and to update the existing ones to block 70 level. Therefore, the US President said that he would personally deal with this issue when he returned to his country.
In this way, he would partially get what he wanted in Turkey. Because, until the Hürjet and National Combat Aircraft projects reached the stage of mass production, the F-16s purchased and upgraded to block 70 would in a sense be the lifeblood of the Air Force.
But the US Senate made a historic decision today. According to the bill, which was accepted by 179 votes to 244, sales will not be made unless Turkey guarantees in advance that it will not violate Greek airspace with the F-16s it will buy.
However, there is no information on whether the Greek airspace will be in accordance with international decisions or whether it will be doubled as Greece has wanted for several years. In addition, it is not known whether counter-infringement on the Greek islands will be counted while the violations on the mainland of Turkey continue.
Therefore, the US Senate has not explicitly told Turkey that the F-16 will not be sold after the F-35. From this point on, it seems very difficult for Turkey to get an F-16 unless US President Joe Biden takes the Senate and vetoes the relevant resolution. But the block70 level upgrade agreement is still in effect.
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