U.S. may suspend training of Turkish pilots for F-35 jets over Russia missile deal

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U.S. may suspend training of Turkish pilots for F-35 jets over Russia missile deal

By Humeyra Pamuk and Phil Stewart

 

FILE PHOTO: A Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft is seen at the ILA Air Show in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is seriously considering suspending training for Turkish pilots on advanced F-35 fighter jets as Ankara moves ahead with plans to purchase a Russian missile defence system despite objections from Washington, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

 

The two NATO allies have argued for months over Turkey's order for the Russian S-400 defences, which Washington says are incompatible with the Western alliance's defence network and would pose a threat to American F-35 stealth fighters which Turkey also plans to buy.

 

The two sources, who are familiar with Turkey's role in the F-35 programme and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a final decision had not yet been made.

 

The deliberation follows signs that Turkey is moving ahead with the S-400 purchase. Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on May 22 that Turkish military personnel were receiving training in Russia to use the S-400, and said Russian personnel may come to Turkey.

 

Turkish pilots have also been training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. It was unclear whether a decision to suspend their training would mean they would have to leave the country, or would be allowed to remain at the base until a final decision is made about Turkey's future in the F-35 programme.

 

The United States has said plainly that Turkey cannot have the S-400 and be part of the F-35 programme. The F-35 is made by Lockheed Martin Corp.

 

If Turkey was removed from the programme, it would be one of the most significant ruptures in recent history in the relationship between the two allies, experts say.

 

"Washington is signalling that while it would rather not break military ties with Turkey, it is ready to do so if Ankara does not change its mind regarding the S-400 purchase," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish programme at the Washington Institute.

 

Strains in ties between Washington and Ankara already extend beyond the F-35 to include conflicting strategy in Syria, Iran sanctions and the detention of U.S. consular staff in Turkey.

 

DONE DEAL

The Pentagon and State Department declined to comment on any deliberations about the pilots. But Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews noted discussions are taking place with Ankara on potentially buying the Patriot missile defence system.

 

Andrews said the Patriot system, made by Raytheon Co., "remains a robust, NATO-interoperable alternative to the S-400 for (Turkey's) national defence requirements."

 

On Monday, Turkish broadcaster Haberturk quoted Akar as saying in an interview that the delivery of the S-400 may not happen in June, when Turkey previously said the missiles were due to arrive. He added the agreement was a done deal, however.

 

"They may not make it by June but they will come in the months ahead. The process has begun," he was quoted as saying.

 

Objecting to Ankara's planned Russian defence purchase, the United States in late March halted delivery of equipment related to the F-35 to Turkey, which is both a buyer and a production partner in the programme. The move was the first concrete step of what could eventually be the full removal of Turkey from the F-35 programme.

 

The United States has warned that if Turkey takes delivery of the Russian system, it will also trigger U.S. sanctions under CATSAA, a law calling for sanctions against countries procuring military equipment from Russia.

 

Turkey has said that as a NATO member it poses no threat to the United States and the sanctions should not apply. Ankara has also increasingly pinned its hopes on President Donald Trump to protect it from such penalties.

 

U.S. officials have called Turkey's planned purchase of the S-400 system "deeply problematic." Washington and other NATO allies that own F-35s fear the system's radar will learn how to spot and track the jet, making it less able to evade Russian weapons.

 

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Phil Stewart; editing by Tom Brown, Jonathan Oatis and Sonya Hepinstall)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-05-29

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[Tug]

Good I wouldn’t trust them with the technology but donald will intervene it’s money and I’m sure putin will tell him to so they can learn how to deal with them

Edited May 29, 2019 by Tug

[quandow]

Does it really matter? This hunk of junk will never be anything other than a huge, EXPENSIVE mistake.

"The non-profit Project on Government Oversight said the F-35C variant 'continues to dramatically underperform in crucial areas including availability and reliability, cyber-vulnerability testing, and life-expectancy testing,'  according to a recent analysis conducted by the organization."

https://www.military.com/dodbuzz/2019/03/19/navys-f-35-nowhere-near-combat-ready-watchdog-group-says.html

Edited May 29, 2019 by quandow
punctuation

[Emdog]

Turkish government ought to look on line for training info on youtube. Or maybe a Ted Talk... Maybe Julian can find docs to help them out...

[GreasyFingers]

3 hours ago, car720 said:

yep and in Australia they have to spray them to stop them from rusting.  

Just part of the cost of helping the USA business interests.

[Morch]

It's a complicated world we live in....

 

As briefly mentioned in the OP, Turkey is also a production partner. Turkish firms manufacture some parts on an exclusive basis, even. To a degree, this makes some of the intel leakage claims a bit silly. On the other hand, if Turkey is barred from further participation in the production chain, Turkish firms are set to lose billions of dollars, not including funds invested by Turkey in the R&D phase. Got to wonder how that's going to be handled if things get worse.

 

Turkey's projected order is for 100-120 units. If these aren't manufactured and purchased, it would mean that the average (and already exorbitant) price per unit will go up. This in turn might cause other contracts to shrink, thus driving prices even higher.

 

As for the CAATSA thing, and specifically with regard to the S-400 system - seems like both India and Saudi Arabia got them on order, with Qatar interested as well (while hosting USA forces in the Gulf). Gonna get interesting at some point.

[thailand49]

The sooner the better should already have been done.

[IAMHERE]

It would seem that S400 is the best. Hope America sends some technicians to help out running the system. Heck, maybe Turkey can train Americans on the S400.

[Galactus]

us f35 jest fly over Syria and over Russian s 400 missiles for many years and daily.

if s400 has tech to steal F35 data and patterns, sure it has happened already.

not to mention the claims like F35 critical data was leaked many years ago.

on top of this, turks cry for a missile defense system fro nato and US but rejected for many years.