NATO NATO Summit 2026 | Ankara

Ripley said:

Heard this everywhere but do we? Do we really need to or should we really wish to return to program after being left ten years behind? Especially, after Israel unofficially but practically started calling the calls on the program through congress and government.
Taking our six aircraft (or five?) and gain the 5th gen experience, know how is one thing but even partially rechanneling our industrial efforts and resources to F-35 program?
I’m not totally against it but somehow skeptical so, not very sure.

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There is nothing concrete yet,lets first see if Trump keeps his word.

Ripley said:

Heard this everywhere but do we? Do we really need to or should we really wish to return to program after being left ten years behind? Especially, after Israel unofficially but practically started calling the calls on the program through congress and government.
Taking our six aircraft (or five?) and gain the 5th gen experience, know how is one thing but even partially rechanneling our industrial efforts and resources to F-35 program?
I’m not totally against it but somehow skeptical so, not very sure.

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TAI's capabilities will probabaly expand to manage both programs effectively. There is a possibility to sell ammunition like the SOM-J for the F35. However F35 is a direct competitor to our Kaan and we want to support Kaan's succes and not the F35's.

Fatman17 said:

If Turkiye gets the F-35 doesn't KAAN become redundant or it becomes a Export material?

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The KAAN is the priority,all the rest has a side role.
It is about independence,when the TF35K engine is ready we wont be needing any foreign platforms or engines.
Then all attitudes against my country will change dramaticly,no more open or hidden sanctions possible.

If – and I mean if – the F-35 and the general sanctions were to be lifted.
Turkey should purchase a maximum of 80-100 F-35s, and under no circumstances more.

20 F-35Cs for the aircraft carrier ‘Mugem’

20 F-35Bs for the 10x TCG Anadolu and the 10x TCG Trakya’ (if the latter is still to be built)

40-60 F-35As for NATO interoperability (manoeuvres, etc.) and to counter Russia, Iran and others.

IC3M@N FX said:

If – and I mean if – the F-35 and the general sanctions were to be lifted.
Turkey should purchase a maximum of 80-100 F-35s, and under no circumstances more.

20 F-35Cs for the aircraft carrier ‘Mugem’

20 F-35Bs for the 10x TCG Anadolu and the 10x TCG Trakya’ (if the latter is still to be built)

40-60 F-35As for NATO interoperability (manoeuvres, etc.) and to counter Russia, Iran and others.

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Ne alaka?
How are you going to use F35C on mugem if it doesn't even have catapult and even if we get build our own it would take time to qualify the f35c for it. Possible scenario would be two squadrons of F35A for our airforce and maybe one F35B squadron for navy.

IC3M@N FX said:

If – and I mean if – the F-35 and the general sanctions were to be lifted.
Turkey should purchase a maximum of 80-100 F-35s, and under no circumstances more.

20 F-35Cs for the aircraft carrier ‘Mugem’

20 F-35Bs for the 10x TCG Anadolu and the 10x TCG Trakya’ (if the latter is still to be built)

40-60 F-35As for NATO interoperability (manoeuvres, etc.) and to counter Russia, Iran and others.

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And what about the Israeli systems on every F-35?

OK… so why all this enthusiasm for the F-35 and the complaints that we’re being left out? Either you buy them or you don’t – unfortunately, the Israelis are involved and will definitely have built in backdoors. I don’t mean to criticise you personally, but it’s a bit of a paradox: you’re angry (I mean guys here in Forum) that you’re out there, yet at the same time you’re overly cautious because the Israelis have a hand in it.

The only solution is to operate them in isolation and separately from the Turkish system, i.e. solely for NATO missions – in which case 40–50 aircraft would suffice, whilst at the same time we could make the most of the industry and hardware and software technologies, such as sensor fusion and stealth, to use as a benchmark against the TAI KAAN to improve.

I am against the purchase and always have been, but I can see the point if the aim is to develop an industrial base and ammunition for the F-35 for other customers ecosystem, or simply to familiarise oneself with the system in order to analyse and understand it.

With we having so much ability to make and modify as we wish and F35 being not good for mods we will be in a bind. Something happens with the plane and we find ourselves cursing the day we accepted them. Having five or six of them as we have paid for them will be good enough for us to move on and take part in NATO operations. Five F35 in mission ready state will be like 20 of them with 25% mission ready. We will be good.

Zafer said:

With we having so much ability to make and modify as we wish an F35 being not good for mods we will be in a bind. Something happens with the plane and we find ourselves cursing the day we accepted them. Having five or six of them as we have paid for them will be good enough for us to move on and take part in NATO operations. Five F35 in mission ready state will be like 20 of them with 25% mission ready. We will be good.

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The US will never agree to that if we only buy 10 or 20 – they know full well that we would only be buying them for analysis purposes and for standard NATO manoeuvres. They would insist on a minimum quantity, for example 40–60 aircraft or more.

26% of all F-35's are full mission capable at a time.
Dont use AI,find the info on/from acknowledged sources.

TR_123456 said:

26% of all F-35's are full mission capable at a time.
Dont use AI,find the info on/from acknowledged sources.

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I don't use AI, I remember from memory, with only 1% injustice, which is not much.

If we keep the 5 F35 in top shape we are like having 19.23 F35 in our fleet.

Current plan is 2 squadrons for the airforce+1 wing for the navy if the US removes the ban on F-35 sales. There are no plans to buy more F-35s. The old plan of buying 100+ F-35s is dead, and it won't come back; it will stay dead.

By the end of 2032, the Turkish Air Force will have
56 Eurofighter T3+/T4
40 F-35
40 Kaan Block 20 (FOC will be declared in 2032)
30 F-16 Block 30 Özgür II
100 F-16 Block 40 Özgür II
70 F-16 Block 50 Özgür II
29 F-16 Block 50+ (possible Viper mod or Özgür II contract extension to modernize Block 50+)
A total of 4 Squadron of Kızılelma and Anka 3 ~80.

The first serial production Kaan block 30 will be delivered in 2033 with TF35000 engines

I think we should strike the iron when it is hot and buy at least 20 Seahawk, at least 10 CH-47 cargo helicopters, 20 C-130J cargo planes, and 4 more E7-T AWACs.
We should buy 29 Viper mod kits+Legion and Sniper PODs+missiles and ammunition for the Air Force with the existing money we paid.

Türkiye’s acquisition of Eurofighter with wide-ranging rights like Sovereign Integration and Mission Data control changed the entire game. It practically guarantees that these jets will operate in a "semi-domestic" status, mimicking the high level of domestic integration we are seeing with the F-16 ÖZGÜR.

Looking at the MRO side, these Typhoons won't be flying back to the UK for every overhauls. Doing all heavy, depot-level maintenance for both the airframe and the EJ200 engines right inside Turkish facilities like Eskişehir 1st HBFM and TEI proves the Turkish Air Force achieved one of its goal: becoming an autonomous operator. With this move, the Air Force will be achieved autonomous operator status across its entire 4.5-generation fighter fleet.

This independence isn't just about dropping local smart munitions or tweaking electronic warfare suites; it is the absolute backbone for transitioning into future MUM-T combat environments. While this transition works leap has been somewhat eclipsed by the KAAN project, it represents impoertant turning point. We are not looking at a decades-long transition over next gen here, but rather a parallel autonomy works fueled by over ten years of deep preparation.

The only real outlier in this strategy is JSF, so F-35. Given that the infrastructure at Malatya Erhaç is already sitting there waiting, and NATO naturally desires a meaningful, interoperable fleet size, getting back into the F-35 program must return to the table. Beyond the jet's tactical edge, its true leverage lies in alliance-wide interoperability. Therefore, the US returning to pre-NDA and pre-CAATSA conditions needs to be Washington's core concession. On the flip side, Ankara’s trade-off would mean accepting to operate this exceptional system-the one platform in its fleet where it cannot be a fully autonomous operator- in strict accordance with the spirit of the alliance to keep NATO's joint interoperability alive in its most risky zones.

TheInsider said:

20 Seahawk, at least 10 CH-47 cargo helicopters, 20 C-130J cargo planes, and 4 more E7-T AWACs.

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In my humble opinion, even if it's not as large a package as you've described, a minimum of sufficient SeaHawks and C-130J-30s, around 10 CH-47s, and four E7-Ts (it can even be green aircraft) would be a more valuable acquisition than the F-35s. Trump could presents this as a success in employment and trade in domestic politics.

just blowing smoke up our arses, as far as i'm concerned.

Mis_TR_Like said:

Trump: "Europe needs be careful with two things, energy and immigration. If they're not carful of those two things, you're not going to have a Europe anymore"

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Why is US administration so much interested in immigration on EU, as an immigrant country and why is USA so much supporting a far right party like AfD?

Huelague said:

Why is US administration so much interested in immigration on EU, as an immigrant country and why is USA so much supporting a far right party like AfD?

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Because immigration to EU is killing them. It doesn't even make sense, most immigrants to EU are economically unproductive and they take more than they contribute over their lifetimes, they are overrepresented in all kinds of crime and second or third generation immigrants are consistently less integrated to European societies. US also has this problem but their immigrants are somewhat different. They have their leeches but a significant amount of 'striver' types go into the labor market and manage to boost the economy.

Right now the political divide in the Western world is native working classes versus ideologically captured upper class and a rootless urban underclass and their ally-clients, foreigner communities.

This issue is civilizational in scale and roughly the same in both North America and Europe. So the right in USA and Europe collaborate when possible. Though I would argue Americans are doing more damage to right wing cause in Europe by being incompetent communicators and administrators (mainly because they are ruled over by populist rabble-rousers and not well-trained paper pushers)

can someone please explain what those contracts were now i mean they signed something at the end were those just national contracts or what please some insight

IC3M@N FX said:

If – and I mean if – the F-35 and the general sanctions were to be lifted.
Turkey should purchase a maximum of 80-100 F-35s, and under no circumstances more.

20 F-35Cs for the aircraft carrier ‘Mugem’

20 F-35Bs for the 10x TCG Anadolu and the 10x TCG Trakya’ (if the latter is still to be built)

40-60 F-35As for NATO interoperability (manoeuvres, etc.) and to counter Russia, Iran and others.

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We only need 60 F-35B for our aircraft carrier.

If CAATSA gets lifted and Turkey can actually buy the F-35, it may open the road for KAAN to either specialize a bit more or have more development time. I always found that the KAAN program looked like a rush job, since our air superiority started waning while our adversaries were getting stronger.

But at the same time, I can't take Trump's words, nor trust Congress to follow his current statements.