Congress renews calls to stop buying F-35 parts from Turkey

The US Defence Department has no plans to expedite Turkey’s exit from the F-35 fighter jet supply chain and will continue to acquire delivery parts until 2022, even as Congress increases pressure to abandon those contracts with Ankara.

A letter signed by US senators on Monday urged US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper to stop sourcing parts from Turkey, citing concerns that Ankara is

“not behaving like a responsible actor or working collaboratively with the West”.

A US defence official told

on Wednesday that honouring contracts with Turkey will continue until 2022 to avoid further disruptions to the F-35 jets’ supply chain.

The date is two years beyond the timeframe the Pentagon initially envisioned.

Turkey was removed from the F-35 consortium in 2019 after its acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile defence system. The US also ended its F-35 training programme for Ankara and blocked the transfer of those aircraft to Ankara.

But the Pentagon will allow defence contractor Lockheed Martin to receive F-35 components from Turkey until 2022, the US defence official said.

The National Defence Authorisation Act signed by US President Donald Trump last December prohibits these transfers.

But the Pentagon is looking away for now, despite pressure from Congress this week stressing the urgency of terminating the delivery of all F-35 components from Turkey.

Turkey had been a member of the F-35 consortium since 2002, along with the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Norway and Denmark.

Turkey adopted a defiant stance when it was acquiring the S-400 anti-aircraft weaponry and tested the Russian system against US F-16 fighter jets last November.