Turkey to select foreign engine for local fighter

Turkey has requested bids from global motor companies GE, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney to present bids to power Turkey’s future fighter jet. The defense authorities, who mull to complete the program by 2023, see the engines as the first step for the ambitious program

Turkey’s aerospace industry and procurement authorities have decided to first choose a foreign-made engine for the indigenous fighter jet that the country’s local industry will develop, and then finalize its design.

A senior aide of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkish scientists had decided that choosing the engine and then proceeding with the program would be the best way.

“So we’ll first choose the engine that will power the TF-X [the proposed Turkish fighter] and develop the aircraft based on that engine,” the official said.

Earlier this year, Turkey’s defense procurement agency, the Undersecretary for Defense Industry (SSM) wrote to three engine makers — GE, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce — asking them to propose a suitable engine for the TF-X.

An SSM official said Ankara would most likely select an engine before the end of the year. “That decision will be followed by the launch of the first phase of the development stage,” he said.

Earlier in June, Pratt & Whitney, at a high profile ceremony, inaugurated its Turkish partnership with local aviation company Kale to produce critical engine parts for the F-35.

Kale Pratt & Whitney, the joint venture, will manufacture the parts of the F-135 and the engine for the F-35, at the plant in İzmir on Turkey’s Aegean coast.

Pratt & Whitney has a 51 percent share in the joint venture while the Turkish company holds the remaining 49 percent, company officials said. The $75 million investment will employ an initial 700 workers.

Defense officials say the Turkish fighter fleet by then will comprise of the TF-X and the new generation F-35. They say a combination of the Turkish fighter and the multinational F-35 will ensure sufficient firepower and deterrence.

Experts often say the F-35 has some weaknesses in air-to-air combat, but the TF-X would compensate.

Turkey in May officially decided to order the country’s first two F-35s. The order is for the first F-35A aircraft with Block-3F configuration under Low Rate Initial Production-10.

Turkey joined the multinational F-35 program as a consortium partner during the concept demonstration phase in 1999.

In January 2013, Turkey had indefinitely put off a decision to order the first two F-35s, citing unpredictable costs and technical snags.

But procurement officials say the country’s commitment to eventually acquire 100 F-35s remains.

Meanwhile, Tusas Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) already has finished the pre-conceptual design work and produced three draft models, one of which would become the first

Turkish indigenous fighter jet. For the pre-conceptual design work, the TAI extensively cooperated with Sweden’s Saab, maker of the Gripen, a lightweight single-engine multirole fighter. Turkey plans to eventually buy 100 to 150 of the TF-X.

Turkey is the old man of Europe. It is a Moslem country but not an Arab country, as an Arab country is by definition one that speaks Arabic. Turkey is one of the exceptions, a Moslem country that speaks Turkish. At what point does the truths in the Bible come into play? A little at a time, but sometimes never. We are doomed. 200 years are over.

“The twin engine version looks like a good copy of the F-22 -”

In the late sixties Opel made a sports car that looked identical to a Corvette. Hopefully, performance is more than just looks.

Having spent 30+ years in all aspects of the military industrial complex I can tell you that culture has a lot to do with whether hardware works in the field. American workers are more likely to build the superior product than the workers of almost any other country. (Exceptions for Japan and South Korea.)

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