The trend seen in the development of modern fighters is for increasing development length, so if Turkish industry with no history of indigenous fighter development can manage to break that trend it would be a tremendous achievement.

I’m left wondering exactly what Eurofighter offered Turkey though. Aside from local manufacture what sort of developments where proposed, was it just integration of weapons and equipment to meet specific Turkish requirements, or where the proposed developments more ambitious than that ?

Eurofighter’s last minute attempt was “EF-2020“. Not much details were given on the specs of this “new” variant, but I guess it was somewhere around Tranch 3B. Eurofighter offered Turkey full and equal partnership. The number of aircraft they were pursuing to sell was around 40, equivalent of 2 squadrons.

So the Turkish AF may continue to fly the F-4 until 2023 or so – how old are Turkish Phantoms as it stands today, 30, 35 years old?:confused::eek:

TurAF currently has two types of F-4E’s:

F-4E 2020 Terminator: Upgraded avionics, weapon systems and structural modifications to extend service life until ~2020, hence the designation. These 50 a/c (54 original, 4 lost) were received in late 1970’s.

F-4ETM Simsek (Lightning): One squadron (16 total) F-4E’s received limited avionics & comms upgrade to enable service until ~2016-2017 when the first examples of F-35 are expected to enter service. These a/c are second hand USAF ANG examples.

(not counting a handful of “unmodernized” F-4Es with 132 weapons and tactics squadron)

As for Turkey, only Turkish Stars continue using “unmodernized” N/F-5A/B’s. The only other onit using the Freedom Fighter is 133 Filo “Pence” (Claw) at Konya 3rd Main Jet Base, using F-5 2000’s in LIFT role.

No. if something can’t be sold outside the US , it’s not a COTS product “ready-made and available for sale, lease, or license to the general public”.

I get your point, but the definition of COTS is not directly related to the place / country to which it is sold. A very specific & critical software which is heavily ITARred is still a COTS, even if it’s sold in US only. A number of different US-origin integrators / contractors can purchase it, develop solutions on top of it and produce an end-product / system at the end of the cycle.

COTS, “Commercial off the Shelf” means that you buy a proven, productized technology and develop your own product / solution by using it, sometimes with a level of customization. Be it an extremely critical ITARred software that cannot be sold outside US or not, COTS means technology available for sale.

There are some COTS software being used in US BMD program which is not available for sale outside the US but being used by a number of govenrment and defence contractor companies. The criteria are strict, but it’s still COTS.

Turkey confirms 2011 F-35 orders. 100 planned.

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-14689.html
The original post is in Turkish if someone would like to translate.

The original source is airporthaber.com, a general aviation news portal. According to the article, the Undersecreteray for Defence Industry, Mr Murad Bayar told in a conference that the Defence Industry Executive Comittee will take the decision for the purchase of F-35 JSF in 2011. The planned number is 100. The order will be given in batches.