Turkey to buy 100 fighter aircrafts worth $10 bln

Published: Mar 29, 2006
Source: www.reporter.gr



Turkey's Air Force plans to buy 100 new generation combat aircraft worth $10 billion and will decide by the end of 2006 which aircraft to purchase, the Anatolian state news agency said.

Turkey will choose between the U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), whose construction is being led by Lockheed Martin , and the Eurofighter Typhoon, being built by a European consortium. Ankara may also opt for a combination of the two planes.

Anatolian quoted Defence Industry undersecretary Murad Bayar as saying during a trip to the United States that the new warplanes would replace F-16 and F-4 aircraft currently used by the Turkish Air Force.

He was also quoted as saying Turkey wanted its own defence industry facilities to handle half of the warplane project.continue..