Because Hürjets are not capable of replacing or fighting F-16's, I would be in favor of producing 60 of them, with the option of 20 more.
Otherwise it should only serve as an export aircraft for countries in Asia & Africa.
For Turkey, 40 units are sufficient as a trainer variant for training, and 40 units for counter-terrorism and patrols together with Hürkus & various MALE drones against terrorism & piracy + Monitoring the turkish Aerospace.
Light GEN 4+ fighters like Hürjet as a new development is simply a dead end, 20-30 years ago it would have made sense, and we would now have Hürjet Block 50/60 or Hürjet II which could have the performance profile of an F-16. But they don't stand a chance against powerful GEN 4+ fighters like the F-16 Block 50/70, Eurofighter or Rafaele.
Hürjet is a near earth light fighter, even if someone argues by BVR capabilities and AESA radar and electronic warfare it could make up for a lot, I say it doesn't matter in real combat, it would always be the underdog aircraft.
The BVR capabilities and AESA radar and electronic warfare, can also fulfill a conventional fighter jet drone without endangering the life of the pilot.
Our rival countries get or have the best of GEN 4+ and GEN 5 like F-35 on the market, so Hürjet is simply no longer of any use.
I maintain that KAAN and F-16, Kizilelma & Anka 3 are or will be the workhorses of the Turkish armed forces in war operations.
For everything else, the Hürjet/Hürkus and drones like Akinci, Aksungur and TB3 are sufficient.
Why? Firstly, considering the fleet size of THK and its planned expansion, it would need a much larger advanced trainer and LIFT fleet. They could opt to just continue using the planned twin-seater variant of Kaan as a conversion trainer/fighter trainer, but that's a very expensive and inefficient option.
Also, there's always the market niche for a fighter in Hurjet-sized segment, and here, absolute cost as well as cost-performance factor is the king. Until now, FA-50 and M-346FA have been the two of the few viable options, alongside Chinese JF-17 and L-15, but Chinese products cater to a slightly different userbase, although that doesn't mean they don't overlap. Hurjet could be an attractive option if it could A: keep the cost as low as the competition (not hard, tbh), B: offer as much option in procurement diversity and operational flexibility C: offer as attractive of a "package" compared to Korea, Italy and China (the biggest problem for Turkiye).
"A" would be easy, as long as they can keep commonalities reasonably high. For instance, current T-50, TA-50 and FA-50 are all common airframes. So as long as THK place a big enough order for the trainer and keeps the line busy, it would have cost competitiveness.
"C" is hard due to outright size of Turkish economy. For instance If there's a big enough procurement, it would be harder for the Turkish gov. to bill the offset deals or soft loans compared to the other countries. This is imo one of the biggest problems.
Another problem is that the market turning into a red ocean real quick. In the 2000s, FA-50 and Hawk 200 held a duopoly in this segment. Now even the US is planning to join the frey with "F-7" based on T-7A.
