TR Air-Force TF-X KAAN Fighter Jet

[Yasar_TR]

For a bulk order of 329 engines for 136 f15EX for the US , GE was given a contract of 1.58billion dollars in 2021. That puts each engine at just under 5 million dollars.

GE will provide all F-15EX engines under $1.6B contract

The final delivery of GE's F110 engines would occur in 2031, and the engine deliveries would help produce 136 F-15EXs.

www.defensenews.com

700million dollar contract, at a price of 7 million a piece, should cover 100 engines for 40 jets. Otherwise 14 million dollars a piece for 50 engines to cover 20 jets is like “daylight robbery”. Normal price for these engines is between 6 to 8 million dollars for small runs

According to this paper :

In June 2026, the formal notification went to Congress for more than 80 GE F110 engines, approved for Türkiye. The announcement landed days before the NATO summit, framed publicly as a gesture of alliance solidarity.

This makes more sense with respect to the 700million dollar price tag. Approximately 8 million dollars per engine is more like the standard price you would expect for a production run of this size. Especially if you consider the fact that GE is already producing 329 engines for US’s 136 f15EX jets.

US preferred to sell jet engines rather than force Türkiye's hand - Türkiye Today

Ankara might have to opt for another alternative for the country's most sensitive defense project if the US hadn't acted on time for KAAN fighter jet engines

www.turkiyetoday.com

 

[Saithan]

I would not put it past any Greek or Israeli lobby groups with knowledge to have already prepared a long report on why we should not get the report and have likely started circulating it.


Be pessimistic, and be positively surprised.

 

[dBSPL]

The package of 80 F110-GE-129E engines currently under the U.S. approval process, combined with the existing initial inventory of 10 engines, establishes a tangible logistics pool of 90 engines for the KAAN program. When military logistics standards are applied to this twin-engine platform, the distribution of the total inventory indicates a clear capability baseline: 14 engines are actively allocated for the flight and system integration activities of the 7 test airframes (flying prototypes) to be produced within the scope of the program. Meanwhile, it is envisioned that the 3 advanced prototypes advancing to the tactical and weapon integration phase could serve within the Turkish Air Force test squadron as part of Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) activities. When the remaining engine volume is calculated based on the universally accepted 15-20% Depot-Level Maintenance (DLM) and operational redundancy margin in twin-engine jet inventory management, it fully secures the production of 2 combat squadrons consisting of 16 aircraft each (32 operational airframes in total) for the Turkish Air Force.

Consequently, this procurement stands as the most rational bridge solution capable of sustaining the Mission Capability Rate (MCR) of the early-stage combat KAAN fleet without any risk during the critical threshold until the indigenous turbofan engine project (TEI TF35000) achieves serial production readiness. Therefore, the polemics detached from logistical realities running on social media regarding the inability to field a 5th-generation aircraft with the F110 engine or the insufficiency of the procurement are mostly nonsense at this stage. Getting the project back on track was the key. Thousands of tests and approval procedures related to sensor requirements and operational concepts will be almost complete once the domestically produced engine arrives.

 

[Huelague]

That is absolutely hilarious, thank you for the laugh.

You really have to learn sarcasm.

 

[boredaf]

You really have to learn sarcasm.

And you need to learn reading other responses before jumping to conclusions, because they weren't being sarcastic based on their other responses.

 

[Huelague]

So Güçhan "engine" completed its job.

Are you kidding or serious?

 

[TurkWolf]

I would not put it past any Greek or Israeli lobby groups with knowledge to have already prepared a long report on why we should not get the report and have likely started circulating it.


Be pessimistic, and be positively surprised.

Israel is one thing.

Do you honestly think the Americans give a damn what the "Greek lobby" thinks or wants?

Do you think the Americans before they decide what to do in West Asia consult with Greeks first or something?

 

[godel44]

This is excellent news about the F110 engines moving forward. This covers one of the most fragile points in all of Turkish defense industry projects and carries the program until 2032-2033 when the indigenous engine is scheduled to be ready. It seems the usual ethnic lobbies in the Congress won't be able to get the majority required to block the process and it will move forward. I hope the deliveries happen with a reasonable timeline.

It's a bit concerning, though, what they said about an agreement about S-400 being done. We have long had a good policy of keeping the S-400 and insisting on F-35s. I hope that continues.

 

[Pokemonte13]

The

This is excellent news about the F110 engines moving forward. This covers one of the most fragile points in all of Turkish defense industry projects and carries the program until 2032-2033 when the indigenous engine is scheduled to be ready. It seems the usual ethnic lobbies in the Congress won't be able to get the majority required to block the process and it will move forward. I hope the deliveries happen with a reasonable timeline.

It's a bit concerning, though, what they said about an agreement about S-400 being done. We have long had a good policy of keeping the S-400 and insisting on F-35s. I hope that continues.

It’s a law specifically designed to target countries/governments that buy Russian military hardware. Even if they wanted they couldn’t and it’s not like s400 is really that important to our air defence too few systems and not enough performance (lacks an iff etc). What we could learn about the f35 is much higher

 

[godel44]

The

It’s a law specifically designed to target countries/governments that buy Russian military hardware. Even if they wanted they couldn’t and it’s not like s400 is really that important to our air defence too few systems and not enough performance (lacks an iff etc). What we could learn about the f35 is much higher

I don’t disagree. The S-400 is not very useful for us and the CAATSA provisions require them to certify it has been removed irretrievably.

 

[Pete Mitchell Maverick]

I expect the S-400 issue to be discussed at the NATO Summit in Ankara and for significant progress to be made.


The fact is that we have not benefited from the S-400s at all; on the contrary, they have caused us considerable harm. I wonder who made this decision, why it was made, and what kind of reasoning led us to it.

 

[Zafer]

I expect the S-400 issue to be discussed at the NATO Summit in Ankara and for significant progress to be made.


The fact is that we have not benefited from the S-400s at all; on the contrary, they have caused us considerable harm. I wonder who made this decision, why it was made, and what kind of reasoning led us to it.

It saved us from spending our money on F35 instead of the Kaan. Not only money but the unreliability trap. We only want a small number of F35 for NATO operations. The seemingly unwanted outcome actually suits us very well.

 

[Pete Mitchell Maverick]

It saved us from spending our money on F35 instead of the Kaan. Not only money but the unreliability trap. We only want a small number of F35 for NATO operations. The seemingly unwanted outcome actually suits us very well.

I'm not a big fan of the F-35, but no matter what, our enemies already have this aircraft in their inventory, and another one will acquire it soon. For that reason, I believe that owning 2-3 squadrons of F-35s would be to our advantage rather than having none at all.

But the real problem, as I said, is the S-400s. Buying them was a huge mistake, and I'm curious what kind of logic pushed us to acquire systems that we've never used, cannot use, and are now desperately trying to get rid of. The current government is working right now to somehow dispose of this system and acquire a few squadrons of F-35s in return.

 

[Zafer]

I'm not a big fan of the F-35, but no matter what, our enemies already have this aircraft in their inventory, and another one will acquire it soon. For that reason, I believe that owning 2-3 squadrons of F-35s would be to our advantage rather than having none at all.

But the real problem, as I said, is the S-400s. Buying them was a huge mistake, and I'm curious what kind of logic pushed us to acquire systems that we've never used, cannot use, and are now desperately trying to get rid of. The current government is working right now to somehow dispose of this system and acquire a few squadrons of F-35s in return.

No they are not trying to dispose of them they are trying to get the other side to disregard their existence. Our enemies have the fighter and can use them but we can have them and not be able to use them which puts us to a losing position where we could have as many Kaan, even more instead.

I would spend all the money on Kaan development along with its engine and roll them out in 2029 no matter how mature the engine along with the Block 1 and 2. So by 2031 I would have 100 Kaan in the fleet which I think is more likely than not. With the supply chain problems no one is guarantied to supply you with what you need even if they wanted to. So we need to make multiple paths to Kaan engines like using different materials resulting in different qualities of engines. Even the poorer quality varieties will be better than a foreign engine.

 

[dBSPL]

Have the 6 F-35s been paid for? Yes. Then efforts should continue to either deliver these aircraft or compensate for the loss by delivering the same number of aircraft from current production blocks. Even if these aircraft are used in a mixed fleet within NATO missions, they can be very useful for tactical training; we can even use them as red-flag aircraft, and indigenous systems can be tested against them technically and tactically.

Beyond that, I believe the main condition for a meaningful order size (max 2 fleets A, 1 fleet B) is ensuring some kind of return on industrial participation. If it won't contribute to the Turkish defense industry anymore (we thank them for their initial contributions), we should continue to focus resources on KAAN and unmanned programs.

 

[Saithan]

I'm not a big fan of the F-35, but no matter what, our enemies already have this aircraft in their inventory, and another one will acquire it soon. For that reason, I believe that owning 2-3 squadrons of F-35s would be to our advantage rather than having none at all.

But the real problem, as I said, is the S-400s. Buying them was a huge mistake, and I'm curious what kind of logic pushed us to acquire systems that we've never used, cannot use, and are now desperately trying to get rid of. The current government is working right now to somehow dispose of this system and acquire a few squadrons of F-35s in return.

Current government is the same that made the decision in the past. No logic at all.

 

[mehmed beg]

I don't know how much of mistake the purchase of S400 was. What mid to long range air defence system Turkiye had till Super came along?
All the event around the country and without any viable air defences?
They practically forced Turkiye into buying S400.
F35 , if it is received quickly, can help development of KAAN, quicker development of air tactics and if F35Bs are acquired, then Anladolu or future LHD can be more effective and in the case of the war , the assets can be spread around the country.
But, considering the availability, costs , strings attached and money needed, 2 squadrons aren't that much of difference. If Turkey wasn't excluded in the production of the planes and wasn't forced to spend for the " alternatives" then this project could have been very useful. All of this is designed to take the money away from KAAN project

 

[Yasar_TR]

Off topic posts are deleted.
Please stay on topic and not divert discussion.
This is “TFX-KAAN Fighter Jet“ thread.

 

[Pokemonte13]

I don't know how much of mistake the purchase of S400 was. What mid to long range air defence system Turkiye had till Super came along?
All the event around the country and without any viable air defences?
They practically forced Turkiye into buying S400.
F35 , if it is received quickly, can help development of KAAN, quicker development of air tactics and if F35Bs are acquired, then Anladolu or future LHD can be more effective and in the case of the war , the assets can be spread around the country.
But, considering the availability, costs , strings attached and money needed, 2 squadrons aren't that much of difference. If Turkey wasn't excluded in the production of the planes and wasn't forced to spend for the " alternatives" then this project could have been very useful. All of this is designed to take the money away from KAAN project

Only partially true there were some opposition to us buying patriot but the real reason why we didn’t get it was firstly we wanted transfer of technology (or at least some local industry involved) secondly price the American as always sell stuff to us at a high price as most foreign countries. There were two instances were they (offered) patriot 2010 and 2018. If we had bought the f35 Kaan would have taken longer in its development. Overall without the arms restrictions imposed by the USA starting in 2016 our localisation would have have taken longer remember istif was supposed to have Mk 41 and Thales rader…

 

[Fatman17]

Trump Administration moves to approve F110 engine sale to Turkey for Kaan fighters

The deal has apparently not received congressional approval, as is typical for large exports of military systems.

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F-110 engine for KAAN