A bipartisan group of senators moved to block Turkey from acquiring cutting-edge U.S. stealth fighters in response to the NATO ally’s efforts to obtain Russian anti-aircraft systems.
“I support the transfer of F-35 advanced aircraft to Turkey, but not if they proceed with the acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile defense system – this move would jeopardize the national security of the United States and our other allies,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Thursday.
Van Hollen, along with Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and James Lankford of Oklahoma, intervened to prevent that outcome on a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. The lawmakers agreed to bar the use of taxpayer dollars to provide Turkey with the F-35 fighters unless President Recep Tayyip Erdogan abandons his pursuit of the Russian weapons.
“Turkey’s acquisition of both systems would allow the Russians to more easily evaluate the capabilities of the F-35 and detect and exploit its vulnerabilities,” Van Hollen said. “That is unacceptable.”
Trump administration and NATO officials have delivered that warning repeatedly to Turkey, which risks violating U.S. sanctions imposed on the Russian defense industry if it proceeds with the deal. But Turkish officials have maintained that the S-400 deal is essential given the lack of NATO-supplied anti-aircraft defense systems; more recently, Erdogan’s team has hinted they might purchase Russian fighter jets in the absence of the American fighters, as well.
“I wouldn’t name specific aircraft models, but I can say that negotiations with other partners on these technical issues are underway,” Ismail Demir, the head of the Undersecreteriat for Defense Industries, said last week.
The new funding provision hasn’t yet passed into law, and it didn’t interfere with a ceremonial delivery of two of the prized fighters to Turkey on Thursday in Texas. The F-35s will be shipped to Arizona, where Turkish pilots will begin a training regimen that could last as long as two years.
“After aircraft production, the U.S. government maintains custody of the aircraft until custody is transferred to the partner,” a Pentagon official told the Washington Examiner. “This normally occurs after the lengthy process of foreign partner training is complete.”
In the meantime, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is lobbying to prevent Turkey from accepting and deploying the Russian anti-aircraft system.
“They have been an important NATO partner,” Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in May. “We need their behavior to reflect the objectives of NATO, and that’s what we’re diligently working to do: to get them to rejoin NATO, in a way, with their actions, consistent with what we’re trying to achieve in NATO. And not take actions that undermine its efforts.”
