Turkey, US bargain over F-35 software

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The multi-purpose F-35 fighter jets are produced by the US-based Lockheed Martin. Turkey is a member of the international F-35 consortium.

Turkey and the U.S. are negotiating over flight codes for the two F-35 military planes that Turkey plans to purchase from the U.S. in 2015 as well as any future purchases.

“When it comes to the plane’s software, we aren’t talking about purchasing all the codes, but just those that are the most essential for the plane’s freedom of operation. These are the codes that we are interested in acquiring,” said Undersecretary of the Defense Industry Murad Bayar in an interview with Anatolia news agency about the decisions coming out of the last Defense Industry Executive Committee.
Bayar added that Turkey does not plan to purchase only two F-35 planes but will decide how many new planes to order each year in the Defense Industry Executive Committee.

“In the first stage we will train our pilots with these two F-35 planes. We will place our subsequent orders as the F-35 model develops and matures,” said Bayar, who thinks there are currently a few glitches with the planes, which are being addressed.

Bayar did, however, hint that Turkey plans to buy 100 F-35 planes and is budgeting approximately $16 billion, according to Anatolia news agency.