I think in order to keep negotiation doors open and also to be able to recoupe some of the 1.4 billion dollars we paid for the F35s we never received, we are keeping the F16V70 project alive.
Also we need to make up the numbers missing and/or will be missing in our f16 fleet for the interim period. But as you rightfully pointed out this could be compensated with EF2000 planes, provided we don’t run in to problems with the German side..
There is also the time issue. Fitting out couple of hundred f16s with Ozgur avionics and Murad Aesa radar is going to take a fair bit of time and money. F16V70 project can shorten this time as workload and financing the project will have been shared between us and the US. (I am thinking that we are looking for some form of credit scheme between governments to finance the f16V70 project)
But at the end of it we are not without options and could go for it on our own.
Yes the biggest issues are recouping the money from the JSF program and time.
But I think the money could be recouped in a smarter way. Why not order AAM(AIM-120-D, AIM-9X Block II-II+) and various pods (Sniper, Legion IRST) for the existing fleet.
Time is a sensitive topic. We don’t know how fast LM would be able to modernize our planes as other countries will have priority due to having put in their orders earlier and due to foreign policy reasons for the US. We already saw Taiwan being pushed to the head of the line by the Pentagon. Who is to say they won’t push us down the ladder and delay the production and modernization of our planes because “reasons”.
maybe sharing the work between TAI and LM would circumvent this.
Then again one of the cons of having the Block 70 upgrade will be not being able to integrate Gökhan Ramjet AAM.
On another topic.
Could we offer this upgrade package to countries with older F-16? Pakistan as an example?