Aviation
Military /
Asia
F-35 exports
Obstacles for the acquisition of the North American fighter jet encourage the design of the Turkish fighter TF-X
TF-X
JohnNewton8, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Gabriela Ramos
5/6/2021
The high cost that has made it difficult for the United States to export their F-35 fighter jets has also encouraged countries to build their own aircraft, such as Turkey, which after being withdrawn from the F-35 program and, as a result, suffered a loss of US $ 1.4 billion, it started to focus on the production of its own fighter, the TF-X, to replace the F-35.
F-35
US Air Force / Ministerie van Defensie, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The United States withdrew Turkey from the program after its refusal to cancel a purchase of the Russian S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft system, as it feared that the S-400's radars and processors, coupled with the presence of the F-35, could help exploit the weaknesses of American fighters and that Russia and other countries that use the S-400, such as China, could take advantage of this information.
Turkey would buy 100 units of the F-35, of which eight have already been delivered, but have remained in storage in the United States.
According to the director of Aerospace Industries in Turkey (TAI), Temel Kotil, the country “set aside an additional US $ 1.3 billion for phase 1 of the TF-X program”, a project with the participation of six thousand engineers. Kotil stated that the project is his top priority. "This should definitely be done," he said.
The first flight of the new aircraft is expected to be between 2025 and 2026. It is expected that two aircraft will be manufactured per month and will cost around US $ 100 million for each aircraft, a value similar to that of the F-35.
The TF-X will also have technical characteristics very similar to the F-35, but it is expected to be able to achieve higher speeds. A model of the new fighter was unveiled by TAI at an event in Paris in 2019.
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Gabriela Ramos
Gabriela is the latest addition to the editorial team of our website, having provided us with her solid background in editing, publishing and photography, and her interest and training in aviation history and historiography. His good taste and common sense and great cleverness and sagacity in the selection of themes and materials greatly enriched our vocabulary and narrative style. Gabriela brought unusual predicates and came to stay, helping to point the way of success of our portal.
   
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