US approves F-16 upgrade for Turkish jets despite Nato row

Turkey operates more than 200 of the highly manoeuvrable US fighter jets

A Turkish F-16 fighter jet lands at Incirlik airbase in the southern Turkish city of Adana. Reuters

The US agreed on Monday to sell Turkey $259 million in software it has long sought to upgrade its fleet of US F-16 fighter jets. State Department approval of the sale comes about two weeks after Turkey dropped its objections to Finland joining Nato.

Turkey continues to withhold its approval for Sweden to join the military alliance. Nato requires unanimous approval to admit new members.

Turkey also still wants to buy 40 new F-16s from the US, but some in Congress oppose the sale until Turkey approves Nato membership for both Nordic countries.

Turkey fell out of grace with the US on high-tech military aircraft purchases after it decided in 2017 to acquire Russian air-defence missiles.

Turkey was ejected from a US programme to develop the next-generation F-35 fighter plane and Turkish defence officials were sanctioned. The US said the Russian missiles posed a threat to the F-35 and strongly objected to their use within the Nato alliance. Turkey sees the F-16s as an interim option to build up its air capability.

The US cut Ankara out of the F-35 programme after fears the country could transfer data on the aircraft to Russia, either intentionally or through data obtained via espionage, especially likely because the F-35 would be integrated with the country’s Russian-made air defence network.

Monday’s approval of the software sale will allow Turkey to update the avionics of its existing F-16 fleet.

The State Department said the upgrade includes improvements in communications and security programs like the ground avoidance system. It called it an “interoperability and basic safety-of-flight issue” for Turkey and its allies.

Turkey has operated the F-16 since 1987, an aircraft developed to counter the Soviet-made (and now Russian operated) MIG-29 fighter jet.

For decades, the F-16 has been considered one of the most manoeuvrable combat jets in the world, scoring air-to-air kills against enemy aircraft in conflicts including the Gulf War, the 2003 US-led Iraq invasion, clashes between India and Pakistan, and between Israel and Syria.

Most of Turkey’s more than 200 F-16s date back to these conflicts, between the early 1990s and the past decade, variants known as Bloc 30, 40 and 50.

The aircraft is operated by US allies including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Pakistan, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Denmark and Norway.

In 2021, Turkey ordered 40 of one of the latest F-16 variants, the Bloc 70, as well as 80 electronics upgrade packages for its radar systems, navigation equipment and crucially, electronic warfare systems such as enemy radar jammers and warning systems.

Even before the F-35 controversy however, Ankara faced resistance from some members of US congress who said Turkey should be denied the F-16 sale due to its air campaign against US-backed Kurdish groups in Syria, as well as domestic human rights abuses.

Turkish F-16s have been used extensively to bomb US-backed Kurdish militias, the Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, designated as a terrorist organisation by the US and EU.