As first reported by Reuters on Monday, the U.S. has blocked the delivery to Turkey of key F-35 fighter jet components and capabilities.
This follows repeated U.S. warnings that Turkey would not be allowed to retain F-35s alongside the Russian S-400 air defense system it has also purchased.
Regardless, the U.S. had no choice but to adopt this ban. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has systematically shrugged off U.S. warnings over the past two years that he could either buy the S-400 or the F-35, but not both. And in that rejection, Erdogan has forced the U.S. act to protect its security.
The security concern is very real. The S-400 is a highly capable air defense system and forms the area denial baseline of Russia’s war planning against NATO. But the central problem with Turkey’s possession of both the S-400 and the F-35 is that it would allow Russia access to valuable forensic detail on how to more effectively target the F-35. Even if the Turkish government prevented Russian intelligence officers from getting inside the F-35 avionics systems (and that is unlikely), Russian officers training the Turkish in use of the S-400 would gather tracking and targeting data on Turkish F-35 flights. That would allow the Russian military to better attune their systems to the F-35’s particular signature and capabilities.
Considering how the U.S. and its closest NATO allies would employ the F-35 against Russia in a conflict, Turkey’s possession of the F-35 is now utterly untenable. After all, in a war with Russia, the U.S. would use the F-35 to escort bombers on sorties against priority targets. But if the Russians know how to better track the F-35s, their S-400s will have a greater likelihood of shooting those jets down and thus denying NATO’s effective air access to the battle space.
The U.S. must only allow F-35 exports to the most reliable allies.
Yes, the F-35 has had its growing pains. But the jet now stands as the world’s most versatile strike jet and the world’s second finest air superiority jet overall. Erdogan thought he could have his Russian cake and eat American, too. The U.S. is right to educate him of his error.
