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1. Italy, Brazil Top Turkey’s List Of Potential FX Partners



By BURAK EGE BEKDIL and UMIT ENGINSOY 



DEFENSE NEWS 24 January 2011, ANKARA — Turkish officials are seeking foreign partners to help build the country’s first fighter jet and will likely open talks with Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica and Brazil’s Embraer, said top pro­curement officials familiar with the FX program.

“We expect TAI to open nego­tiations with both manufacturers later this year,” one procurement official said. “And in 2012 we’ll know with whom we’ll take the road.” The government has asked the national aerospace company, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), to figure out how the part­nership will work. TAI will also receive $20 million from the na­tional procurement office, or the Undersecretariat for Defense In­dustries (SSM), to produce the “conceptual design” of a fighter aircraft to be built after 2020.

In recent years, Turkey’s drive to make more of its top-line arms has produced indigenous programs for its Land Force and Navy. The FX effort aims to build airpower increasingly independ­ent of U.S. technology, analysts and officials here said.

Last December, Defense Min­ister Vecdi Gonul said Turkey would develop and manufacture its next air-to-air fighter aircraft, either by itself or in cooperation with another country.

Gonul said Turkey may coop­erate with South Korea but im­plied it is not a strong possibility. Turkish defense officials said the “Korean option” failed be­cause Seoul insisted on having an overwhelming majority in the effort.

If implemented, the program is meant to give Turkey airpower parallel to its present and future U.S.-made fleet.

The Turkish Air Force now op­erates F-16s and F-4s. Turkey also is a partner in the U.S.-led Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) consortium that is building the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jet.

Ankara plans to buy about 100 F-35 aircraft worth nearly $15 bil­lion. Many Turkish companies are members of the JSF consortium of nine Western nations, and are producing parts for the aircraft. Turkey also will receive 30 mod­ern F-16 Block 50 fighters from Lockheed Martin, the F-35’s top maker, as a stopgap until F-35 de­liveries begin around 2015.

Officials said that Turkey’s new fighter “would be a next-genera­tion type, would replace the old­er, U.S.-made F-4Es and would function well with the F-16s and the F-35.” They confirmed the new air­craft mostly would be meant for air-to-air fighting. The F-4Es are air-to-air fighters, while the F-16s and F-35s are designed mainly for air-to-ground operations.

Turkey’s present fleet of up to 90 F-4 aircraft has been modern­ized jointly by Israel and Turkey, practically falling outside of U.S. operational control. But these Vietnam-era fighter jets will phase out after 2020.

“What Turkey seeks is apparent­ly to have an airpower partly in­dependent of U.S. operational controls,” said one analyst here who asked not to be named. “The new aircraft other than the F-16s and the F-35s will serve this strate­gic goal. The Turks are seeking a two-pronged approach: to main­tain both U.S. and national assets; U.S., with the upgraded F-16s and the F-35s, and national with the FX program.” The FX program means Turkey will abstain from buying a Euro­pean fighter. In December, Gonul ruled out any potential acquisition of the Typhoon fighter jet built by the Eurofighter consortium.

But Turkish procurement offi­cials still voiced willingness for talks with Alenia Aeronautica, one of the Eurofighter partners, for separate talks for the coming Turk­ish fighter, along with Embraer.

“We view both companies as suitable partners for our national [fighter] procurement program,” the procurement official said.
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2. Turkey May Buy Up to 116 F-35s: Defense Minister

By UMIT ENGINSOY and BURAK EGE BEKDIL
Published Defense News: 24 Jan 2011 17:11

ANKARA- Turkey’s Air Force may buy up to 116 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Lightning II aircraft, the NATO ally’s defense minister has said.
Turkey, a member of the U.S.-led nine-nation F-35 consortium, has already said that it means to buy around 100 JSFs. But Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, in response to questions by an opposition parliamentary deputy on the JSF program, said for the first time in a Jan. 17 statement that the maximum figure would be 116.
“We’re planning to buy 100 aircraft with an additional option of another 16,” he said.
Members of the JSF consortium include the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, Canada, Norway and Australia. Turkey also will buy 30 F-16 Block 50 fighters from Lockheed Martin, the JSF’s top producer.
Additionally, Turkey plans to build with a foreign partner or by itself what it calls a “national fighter jet” that would complement the F-35 in the 2020s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/business/26fighter.html?_r=1&ref=us

Un article intéressant sur les problèmes rencontrés par la version du Corps des Marines à décollage vertical. Au dela des problèmes techniques évoqués (des turbulences excessives dans le système de propulsion, et une trop grande déformation du moyeu de la turbine sous l’effet de la chaleur ), 2 détails retiennent l’attention :
tout d’abord l’opinion de Wheeler, pour qui la période probatoire de 2 ans donnée par Gates au programme n’est autre chose qu’un coup de pied en touche pour passer la patate chaude de l’annulation à son successeur.
Et aussi le fait que cet article extrêmement défavorable au JSF paraît dans ce parangon de conformisme médiatique US qu’est le New York Times. Ca sent décidément le sapin.