ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish Aerospace Industries has signed two contracts price nearly $2 billion with the country’s largest defense company to upgrade F-16 fighter jets.
The deals announced by Aselsan, a military electronics specialist, were for $1.2 billion and 20.7 billion liras (U.S. $789.2 million).
The Biden administration has backed Turkey’s desire to purchase 40 recent F-16s in addition to modernization kits from the U.S. It’s a move some in Congress, most notably Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J, have opposed over Turkey blocking NATO membership for Sweden, its human rights record, its relations with Greece and other concerns.
Neither TAI nor Aselsan revealed details of the contracts, inked July 13. But a government procurement official and sources with the companies told Defense News that the contracts are related to a program to upgrade Turkey’s aging F-16s, starting with the Block 30 level.
The upgrade program will include a brand new mission computer, an energetic electronically scanned array radar and recent avionic suites for about 150 Turkish F-16 aircraft. This system may also include recent cockpit color displays, a brand new indigenous identification friend or foe system, a brand new system interface unit, a hydraulic fuel gauge, recent radar warning receivers, and an inertial navigation system.
The backbone of the upgrade program is a subsystem dubbed Ozgur (”free” in English) that goals to develop and produce Turkey’s first AESA radar, which Aselsan officials hope will extend the flight time for a number of the country’s F-16 aircraft by half, to 12,000 hours.
Per upgrade plans, the AESA radar will first be retrofitted onto the Akinci, a drone built by TAI; then on a batch of 36 F-16 Block 30 aircraft; and, in the long term, the TF-X, Turkey’s first indigenous fighter jet within the making. Block 30 is the one F-16 model whose source codes can be found to Turkey.
“This deal has two implications: One, it is an element of Turkish efforts to balance Greece’s increasing air superiority over the Aegean Sea, especially by buying recent French-made Rafales; and two, once [the upgrade is successful and the aircraft is] combat proven, it might pave the way in which for Aselsan and TAI to penetrate into the world’s large F-16 modernization market,” said Ozgur Eksi, who runs the media outlet TurDef.
In 2019, Turkey requested the Link 16 tactical data link, amongst other technology, for 199 F-16 jets. Then, acording to January 2023 media reports, the Biden administration “informally notified Congress of its intent to sell 40 recent F-16s within the Block 70/72 Viper configuration (F-16Vs) and Viper upgrade packages for 79 existing fighters, together with 900 air-to-air missiles and 800 bombs, at an estimated total value of $20 billion,” a document from the Congressional Research Service noted.
And in April, the U.S. State Department publicly approved the sale of apparatus and services to Turkey in support of upgrading the European nation’s F-16 fleet in a possible deal price an estimated $259 million. The Congressional Research Service wrote this possible sale appears to incorporate the Link 16.
The Turkish Air Force declined to comment for this story, citing national security.
Aselsan is the most important defense company in Turkey, and the forty ninth largest on this planet based on defense revenue, in accordance with the Defense News Top 100 list.
The corporate reported its total sales in 2022 reached 35.3 billion liras, and that its pretax depreciation and interest profit was 9.5 billion liras, a 77% rise from the 12 months prior. Its net profit in 2022 rose by 70% to 11.9 billion liras.
Aselsan also reported that, during fiscal 2022, it successfully “localized/nationalized” 160 systems, meaning the business indigenously produced technology that the country was previously importing. Overall, the corporate boasts to have done so for a complete of 670 systems.
For its part, Turkish Aerospace Industries ranked 67th on the Top 100 list.
After his re-election on May 28, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shuffled the federal government’s procurement hierarchy. Ismail Demir, who led the Presidency of Defence Industries, or SSB, was appointed board chairman of government-controlled steel and iron producer Kardemir. Haluk Gorgun, Aselsan’s CEO, replaced Demir.
A June 22 statement from the corporate said Aselsan’s recent CEO is Ahmet Akyol, formerly the firm’s deputy general manager. He continues to function a board member at Aselsan.
Akyol is a pc engineer who underwent training on the U.S. college Stanford University and the U.K. school Cranfield University.
Akyol has a background in industry and government, having worked at military software provider Havelsan and simulation specialist Quantum3D, and with the Ministry of Industry and Technology in addition to the Ministry of Defense, plus the state scientific research agency Tubitak. He also previously served as the top of electronic warfare and radar systems on the SSB (then often known as SSM).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Burak Ege Bekdil is the Turkey correspondent for Defense News.