US completely abandons Turkish components for F-35
Turkey is finally excluded from the production program of the fifth generation fighter F-35. According to Defense News, the United States has almost finished replacing the search for components for aircraft previously manufactured at Turkish plants.
As the newspaper writes, the American companies Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney "have made impressive progress" in finding alternative suppliers for the components of the fifth generation F-35 Lightning II fighter produced in Turkey. To date, it has been possible to find an alternative replacement for Turkish aircraft components by 98,8 percent. According to Lieutenant General Eric Fick, responsible for the F-35 Lightning II program, only 12 components out of 1000 produced in Turkey remain to be replaced, while eleven of them relate to the fighter's airframe and only one - the rotor blades - of the engine.
According to the general, it is planned that by March next year the production of the F-35 aircraft will completely cease to depend on components manufactured in Turkey. However, the United States will continue to purchase Turkish parts for some time until the production of alternatives to replace them is fully deployed.
Recall that Turkey initially participated in the program for the creation of the fifth-generation American fighter F-35 along with the United States and other countries. Washington decided to exclude Ankara from this program after the latter purchased the Russian C-400 anti-aircraft missile system.
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