Turkey held a bizarre ceremony to celebrate its F-35s - but it might not even get them
- Turkey held a flamboyant and bizarre ceremony to celebrate getting its first two F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighters, but if the US Senate has its way, those will be the only ones.
- There's deep concerns in the US over Turkey's human rights record, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's sometimes brutal ways, and Turkey's recent interest in Russian missile defenses.
- If Turkey buys Russia's missile defenses, as it says it will, it could totally compromise the F-35, and NATO, against its main adversary - Moscow.
- But Turkey has an F-35 now, so the US can either withold the rest hoping Turkey dumps the S-400, or set Turkey lose with only two stealth jets.
Turkey held a flamboyant and bizarre ceremony to celebrate its first F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighters, but if the US Senate has its way, those two fighters will be the only ones they get.
Turkey, as well as a host of other US allies, are awaiting the F-35 to replace aging fleets of Cold War-era warplanes and bring them into a networked, futuristic style of aerial combat.
Upon receiving its first-ever F-35s from the US, Turkey held a memorable celebration that gave viewers a "taste of Turkey's rich heritage and diverse culture," with a long intro song that depicted skydivers, birds, and ended with a man dressed as a bird or plane doing an aviation-themed dance.
But after the curtain rolled back on Turkey's single F-35, and Turkey's military leaders expressed hope for a powerful and networked new air force, a major question remains: Will Turkey even get its promised 100 F-35s?
Turkey took part in building the F-35, as did many countries. It's an important NATO ally positioned as a bridge between east and west. The US bases airmen and nuclear weapons in Turkey, but lately, the relationship has soured.
There's deep concerns in the US over Turkey's human rights record, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan authoritarian regime, and Turkey's recent interest in Russian missile defenses.
Turkey is on track to buy Russia's S-400 missile defense system.
Retired US Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula told Business Insider that NATO countries "don't want to be networking in Russian systems into your air defenses" as it could lead to "technology transfer and possible compromises of F-35 advantages to the S-400."
If Turkey owned the F-35 and the S-400, it would give Russia a window into NATO's missile defense network and the F-35's next-generation capabilities. Basically, as NATO is an alliance formed to counter Russia, letting Russia patch in would defeat the purpose and possibly blunt the military edge of the most expensive weapons system ever built.
For that reason, and human rights concerns, the US Senate wrote into its Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that it wanted Turkey's F-35s held back.
Lockheed Martin officials said they still expected the sale to go through and the planes to be delivered, but if the House backs up the Senate, and Trump approves, Turkey could be stuck with only two F-35s for a long time.
Potentially, Turkey may be persuaded by the US to give up on its S-400 purchase from Russia, but it's also possible that a scorned Turkey will go through with the purchase and have a single US-made stealth jet networked into Russian technology.