Like there was a better way.
If F-35 was so bad that we didn't want it there was no need to pay for these planes, buy a Russian junk which costed us billions of $ so we can engage nothing more than aircraft, being prone to CAATSA and paying for the depot and maintenance of our aircraft which actually aren't ours, but we paid for them and we don't want them, but would like to receive them...
I remember pre-2016 how every defence enthusiast no matter of his political orientation was chest thumping how we are going to receive 100 F-35As and possible 16 F-35B, insisting that we would be dominating the skies of Athens with our F-35s and suddenly 15th of July came and F-35 became the worst aircraft in the world. How so? I can answer this question, but I don't want to initiate a political discussion. I would say only one thing in relation to this and this is that FETO is the worst thing happened to this country in its modern history and Fethullah Gulen didn't purchased these aircraft, but they were purchased with the green light of his local enablers. Turkiye joined this program in 2002.
Note: I don't say only this name that everyone is expecting me to say, because he is not the only one who ate the forbidden fruit of the US.
If we knew that F-35 had such "features" that would create vulnerabilities for the combat potential of the Turkish Air Forces then instead of triggering CAATSA and buying the Russian junk (ToT claimed, in reality no ToT at all), we should've dropped our F-35 purchases, stay in the program as a major supplier and buy Patriots, Aster 30s which just as the Russian S-400s were not going to come with a ToT, but we would've had an existing mediocre or even good capability in countering ballistic missiles which would've lightened our burden a bit in Iraq and we were going to have a real chance of establishing deterrence against Iran instead of pray day and night to Allah that they don't go crazy and bomb the sh!t out of our base in Bamerni or Bashiqah. We ended up paying billions for almost non-operational air defence system and not having any mean of countering ballistic missiles no matter of the type (SRBM or MRBM).
All this money and time could've been invested in KAAN and Hisar/Siper. The time and money invested in foreign products procurement to only be faced with open and covered embargos could have also be invested in national programs way earlier.
On your question: Yes, there was a better way and it is called "not serving a foreign interest". After the 15th of July event everyone received the message and I hope lessons are learned. The negative of this is that we are currently in a legal swamp.
Turkiye as a country of 75-80-85 million people deserved and deserves way better. Unfortunately the people which expressed these concerns were either killed in cold blood or put in prison on false accusations, of course with the help of the best prosecutor.
Only a couple days passed from the date on which the father of the MILGEM program, Admiral Ozden Ornek passed away in 2005. Despite the difficulties put before him, despite that he was put in prison by FETO and their enablers for that he wanted an independent Turkiye, today we are seeing the fruits of his work, we are proud of both the Ada corvette and TCG Anadolu, and just as in many similar cases while his fruits and the Armed Forces are used for political goals his name is not even remembered, as he was never alive and serving. The F-35 acquisition is also managed as a political process rather than a military acquisition project.
The Turkish Nation should not be in any way satisfied or delighted by the developments in our programs no matter if we talk about the F-35 acquisition, KAAN or any other product. We should be thankful to the engineers working day and night for their contribution to the independence of this country, because they are the ones who posses the ability to "undo" the previous mistakes and actually do it. We should always expect more!
F-35 process together with its negatives is an inheritance of another vision for the country and its geopolitical position that was adopted by the political decision makers and a certain wing from within the Armed Forces. We can't get a time machine and go back in time so we return as nothing wrong happened, but we must at least manage the diplomatic and legal processes concerning the F-35 program and our participation in a better way. I expect a firm position on this from our officials and not the current performance. We know that our MoFA is weighting different options, but it is time to decide. Do we want these planes or we want our money? If you ask me, with the current state of KAAN I would get the money and invest it in its development. We expect a delivery in 2028 with a foreign engine and currently we are almost at the middle of 2024. If we want our money then we should start the legal process as soon as possible so we can get back our money and invest it in our national capabilities on time. To sue the US is a long process. While our defence industry made huge leaps in all realms we still have important gaps to fill and this money for sure will be appreciated.
Although you might be out of date with your info but 22 are produced and the Su-70 and Su-75 will get later produced.
