Turkey Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
I think it boils down to how badly the relations deteriorate. If Trump goes full Rtard — (which he has in a few occasions) adapting F-110 might be the least challenging way to keep test flights going. Whatever issues there are with FADEV and engine specifications can’t be much worse than going from AL-31 to WS-10 which use completely different cores.
That said, I think Trump will probably TACO in a month or so, but if this doesn’t give the kick in the ass to get engine indigenization the very top priorities then nothing will.
It's not just whoever is the President, it's the CENTCOM, the Congress, and sometimes even the DoS; this has been going on for a long time now after all... Something has been off with the U.S.' policy toward Turkey ever since the Iraq War (if not earlier), and it honestly couldn’t have gone much worse.
It’s become institutional, and foreign interference through lobbying isn't helping either, which is certainly a sign of a major power unwilling to acknowledge the decline of its influence.
Turkey wants to secure the supply of F‑16 maintenance equipment, the F‑110 engines for the Kaan Block 10 and the F‑404 engines for Hürjet so that, until it achieves full self‑sufficiency on engines, it (if possible) no longer has to rely on the U.S in the future.
Moreover, the U.S.' need for deeper cooperation with the entire Turkish industry in general is growing by the day, and Turkey would clearly benefit from CAATSA getting lifted, expanded trade (reaching the 100B goal), and rejoining the F‑35 program as a supplier (to ease the flow of money for the Turkish military industrial complex).
The big question is do they have enough f110 engine to do KAAN prototyping before their own engine can do the trick ? They have six prototypes scheduled and are planning the first batch in 2028 with f110 if they dont have any delays. If they can get their TF35000 working enough in 2032 to get integrated, you dont need a huge f110 stockpile to survive until then.
There are currently 10 engines at TAI for testing (for 5 flightworthy prototypes + 1 ground test unit) , which were approved by the Congress back in 2017.
The new engine license that the Congress has put on hold applies to the initial 20 production aircraft (i.e., the Block 10). Subsequent blocks are planned to use the indigenous engine, including the Indonesian Block 30 ones scheduled for delivery between 2032 and 2035. That said, you never know if there will be delays in the certification process by the time Block 20 airframes are ready and waiting for their engines.
The Block 10 (units with software-blocked IWBs and no RAM coatings) is scheduled for delivery within three years (and built even earlier), so it’s about time this issue is resolved.
If relations goes down, I think turkiye will only need a little amount of engines so that development & testing of the platform and it's subsystems doesn't stop, so they only need a little amount of engines and good maintenance & support.
I recognize the problems @CasualObserver talked about, and most likely there's more, but they can just use the engine so it provide the minimal viable output needed so that development of the project doesn't stop, and they will not be able to field the project into service, and they will/can wait to integrate another engine either indigenous or imported.
Yeah, that was very informative, thanks for sharing that.
