I just wonder, is there a possibility we get those T1s with "naked", like Israelis got theirs F16s from Americans? I am not talking about avionics obviously but if we get the source codes or just have permission to integrate our missiles to T1s, may be our radar, it would be an excellent thing.
Is that even doable?
@Yasar_TR @Sanchez
Israelis didn't get any "naked" F-16s. Many if not most of the subsystems on Israeli F-16s, even in F-16I Sufa are American. Some were jointly developed with Israeli companies for Israeli needs, like the CFTs for example, some were put in by Israelis while being built. Israeli Sufas and modernized F-16C/Ds use Israeli electronic warfare systems designed for Israeli needs, but they are very similar to the original American one in most aspects.
We can get British T1s as they are and in time can work on them according to our specifications. It's not clear how much of the aircraft's systems would be open to our tinkering. Typhoon's architecture is different than the aircraft we know and love. As it's owned wholly by 4 countries at the same time, it is said that integrating separate munitions to it is easier and I believe it can be done by the respective countries themselves. But this wasn't ever tested with other customers save for the owners of the program.
Same architecture with it also brings other complexities we would need to go through however. Typhoon is basically alien to us and our companies. Everything on it is different than the F-4s and F-16s we know very closely. I think a full on program like Özgür for the F-16s for the Typhoons would simply take too much time, everything possibly needs to change. It's not even clear if our subsystems(radar, EW, mission computers) can be integrated into the airframe without major structural changes as well, I don't think anyone save for the higher ups in the procurement project know the details of this for now. And whether it would be cost effective to undertake such a large modernization program is another issue. Everything is mathematically possible, but whether it is feasible is another question. And whether consortium owners need to give their okay politically to it is another question. There is no FMS here, T1s are British property. But IP rights still fall to consortium owners. We simply don't know and are not privy to the exact details of ownership of rights of the aircraft. Many of the subsystems for example are made by German companies and are subject to German IP laws.
At this stage, we don't know what is the specifics of the deal are, whether T1s are actually part of a deal, whether T1s will be "rented" for training purposes, whether HvKK plans to incur T1s into service for combat roles, whether they think a modernization is required. We don't know anything. So we should ease on the speculation while still exploring the possibilities. Nothing is clear yet.
Let's see I am still cautious about the content of the deal. But if we can avoid the T1 and point and pick T2 then that is fine. As long as it's clear we're not getting T1 that has been upgraded to T2.
I don't think British T2s are for sale under their own considerations. If there is a deal that can be made here, that's another issue. But currently there are no T2 upgraded T1s in the world. If we go that route, our ex-RAF T1s would be the first in the world. This is another venue that could possibly ve explored. If Turkey accepts to upgrade the T1s to T2 Block 15 level, maybe other users may also be more willing to go that route, as non recurring engineering costs would have been paid by us. This may bring Turkey closer to the consortium. If we want to seek much closer defence cooperation with EU/UK in the near future, forcing our way into EF consortium may be one way to achieve that. This of course brings additional costs we would need to endure.
This is of course just my thinking and another speculation. There's nothing to suggest government and MSB is interested in any of this for now. Maybe we just want airframes as quickly as possible and that's it. But with German president coming to Turkey with main agenda being defence cooperation, it's another possible junction. How real is a possibility of Turkish cooperation on FCAS with recent French senate report also mentioning Turkey and FCAS together?
I do hate not knowing any details, but there's some changes on the horizon, that much seems to be clear.
