Washington has been pressuring Ankara into abandoning the S-400 deal with Russia by threatening to stop deliveries of F-35 jets, despite Turkey’s contribution to the project’s funding and development. The US claims that the Russian air defence system can render the jet’s stealth capabilities useless by passing data on it to Moscow.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has stated that US decision to halt training sessions for Turkish F-35 pilots over the S-400 spat found no support among other participants of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme, which funded the development of the highly costly aircraft in the first place. The cabinet minister further stated that neither this move, nor others by Washington can affect Ankara’s determination to obtain Russia air defence systems on time.