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F-35s: As UAE-US deal collapses over spy fears, Turkey sees a sample
Ragip Soylu
Thu, 12/16/2021 – 08:00
For years, there was rising suspicion in Ankara that the US used issues over Russian espionage as an excuse to kick Turkey out of the F-35 fighter jet programme.
Turkish officers raised these issues as soon as once more this week because the UAE pulled out of a deal to purchase F-35s after the US imposed what one Emirati official described as “onerous” necessities to protect in opposition to Chinese language spying.
‘They by no means needed to share the methods and strategies of such attainable Russian espionage by the Russian missile system on F-35’
– Senior Turkish official
“They’ve by no means ever technically defined to us how the S-400 may spy on the jet,” a senior Turkish official, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of he wasn’t authorised to talk publicly, informed Center East Eye, concerning the Individuals.
“They by no means needed to share the methods and strategies of such attainable Russian espionage by the Russian missile system on F-35. They handled it as a state secret.”
Turkey had been within the F-35 programme because the early 2000s, paying $1.4bn through the years for the event and manufacturing of the jets and their leading edge, fifth-generation know-how.
However this October, after years of diplomatic squabbling, the US authorities and its companions kicked Turkey out, primarily on account of Ankara’s acquisition of the Russian-made S-400 missile defence system.
US officers had repeatedly informed their Turkish counterparts and the media that S-400s may accumulate delicate data on F-35 know-how and so it was unattainable for the Pentagon to maintain Turkey within the programme.
In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed a number of instances to create a technical committee to determine whether or not it was attainable to make use of S-400s and F-35s on the identical time with out compromising the latter. However US officers repeatedly denied this request.
Giving Israel an edge?
The senior Turkish official informed MEE that American engineers who labored within the F-35 programme informed their Turkish colleagues that S-400s didn’t pose any risk to the F-35s. “After we relayed this to US officers, the response was the standard speaking factors,” he mentioned.
He and a number of other different Turkish officers now consider that Israeli lobbying in opposition to Turkish possession of the F-35s performed a much bigger position in denying them to Ankara than the S-400 debacle.
Israeli media reported in 2019 that Israel had labored behind the scenes to make sure that Washington blocked the sale of F-35s to Turkey to protect its navy edge within the area.
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High US Senate Democrats additionally opposed the United Arab Emirates’ acquisition of F-35s in April, citing Israel’s qualitative navy edge.
A Pentagon spokesperson, who was requested in regards to the Turkish allegation that Russian spying issues have been an excuse, mentioned the US authorities’s place has not modified.
“The S-400 is incompatible with the F-35 and Turkey has been suspended from the programme,” Jessica Maxwell, a US Division of Protection spokesperson, mentioned in an e mail.
“Buying Russian weaponry brings the Russians income, entry and affect and we urge Turkey and all US companions and allies to keep away from such purchases.”
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