The governments of Russia and Turkey are cooperating to develop the Turkish TF-X stealth jet. So says Ismail Demir, the head of the Turkish Defense Industries Presidency.
“There are many provisions on cooperation in our dealings with Russia. They include issues related to the development of [Turkey's] domestic warplanes [TF-X]. As the national jet TF-X will leave the hangar in 2023, there is a type of engine that we choose and certain systems”, said Ismail in an interview with the Milliyet newspaper last Sunday (05).
“But it will go through a phased process of replacing, developing, modernizing and localizing certain systems over time. During this process, talks with the Russian side about concrete location systems can be held. Today, we are not discussing such a wide range of details.”
Also in August, the director of Russia's Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, said that the two nations were in consultations on cooperation issues in the area of development of Turkey's TF-X jet fighter, especially on engines.
Turkey has been working on its national fighter jet projects since 2016. BAE Systems is also participating and the chosen engine is the General Electric F110 from the United States.
Work on the TF-X was carried out concurrently with Turkey's participation in the F-35 jet fighter program. The country was supposed to receive about a hundred of these jets, but the United States excluded Turkey from the program following Turkey's purchase of the S-400 air defense systems.
