Turkey Fighter Aircraft Program To Cost Big Bucks

Turkey’s plans to procure 200 indigenously built fighter aircraft and another 100 F-35s from the U.S will cost the country dearly. According to reports, Turkey must spend nearly $50 billion if it intends to see the project through.

According to the Hurryet Daily News,building eight prototypes for what will become the Turkish national fighter would cost Ankara over $10 billion. “Any figure in the range of $11 billion to $13 billion would be realistic,” a senior official familiar with the program was quoted as saying. 

His guess for the final Turkish order if the entire program succeeded was nearly 200 aircraft. “We target $100 million per aircraft,” he said. “I think 200 is a realistic figure given our aging fleet of aircraft that will phase out in the decades ahead.” 

That means Turkey will have to spend $31 billion to $33 billion for the Turkish fighter it hopes to design, develop and manufacture, the report added.

Also known as the TF-X program, Turkey hopes to see the aircraft take off by 2023. Turkey-based TAI is reportedly working on three different designs, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to decide on whether to go ahead with the plan at a defense industry committee meeting later this year. 

Meanwhile, Turkey, whose present fighter fleet is made up of U.S.-made aircraft, also plans to buy the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a next-generation, multinational program also led by the United States. 

Turkey’s defense procurement officials have said Ankara intends to buy around 100 F-35s. Defense analysts estimate the cost of the entire JSF program to Turkey to be around $16 billion, bringing Turkey’s fighter budget up to $50 billion together with the TF-X, the report said.