Turkey will pursue Russian fighter jet technology should the United States boot out Ankara from the multinational group developing the F-35 Lightning II, Defense News reported citing an unnamed Turkish official.
“Russian fighter technology would be the first best choice if our American allies behaved in an un-allied way and questioned Turkey’s membership in the Joint Strike Fighter programme”, a senior military officer told the media outlet.
Washington has been pressuring its NATO ally to abandon the S-400 deal with Russia, threatening to expel Ankara from the F-35 programme and introduce sanctions under the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
If Turkey accepts the S-400, “no F-35s will ever reach the Turkish soil. And Turkish participation in the F-35 programme, including manufacturing parts, repairing and servicing the fighters, will be terminated, taking Turkish companies out of the manufacturing and supply chain for the programme”, a group of bipartisan lawmakers from the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote in early April.