Theresa May signs £100m fighter jet deal with Turkey's Erdoğan
 

Article in today's on-line Guardian.
Que???

False news? I hope so. Not what we need right now in the world - more lethal weaponry in the hands of another "strongman".
But money talks as always.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAI_TFX

I found it more interesting that the main design team is from SAAB, who designed the Gripen - and the Turks have the option to buy the design unit........

"Saab AB will provide technological design assistance for Turkey's TFX program. TAI has the option to purchase Saab AB's fighter jet design unit.".........

So Sukhoi will soon have all the details for £100 M

SAAB were contracted some years ago to do a pre-feasibility study. In late 2015 SAAB, Airbus and BAEs were invited to tender for the 4 year preliminary design phase for a 5th generation LO air superiority platform (think F-22). It's likely to be a twin-engined aircraft, possibly with new co-developed engines; R-R UK have proposed a $500m co-development programme. About a year ago BAEs was selected for pre-contract negotiations; a contract was very close to being signed at Farnborough, but the Programme Directory, a Maj Gen Aksoy, was arrested on his return to Turkey, immediately following the coup attempt. Airbus tried to get another deal on the table last year but the Turks were happy to partner with the UK - as this proposal has massive cross-Government support. SAAB have now no involvement in the programme. Oh, and the contract is worth about $160M.

But the bottom line is that the Turkish Government want something that is exportable and have an eye on the global F-16 fleet. Should the PDC go well (and BAEs is heavily resourcing it), it's likely they will be kept on and there will be many other UK companies involved - along with the burgeoning hi-tech Turkish defence industry (much of it quasi-state-owned). I think we will see the RAF working closer with the TurAF on collaboration programmes, as they struggle to rebuild after the coup attempt (perhaps 30% of F-16 pilots were dismissed and/or arrested; including almost all of their FJ QFIs...apparently).

Outside of FCAS, this is the only forward looking programme on the BAEs books with real potential to produce the next generation of aerospace engineers.

Well then...

ZZ336 has flown Brize-Heathrow-Philadelphia-Andrews AFB-Ankara-Heathrow-Brize 25/01 > 28/01...

She's been holding hands with some <ahem> well regarded world leaders!

I'm sure today's Daily Express will manage to put some positive spin on it.

BAE will put their ex-Nimrod team onto it - will put them back many years!!

The emphasis will be on growing Turkish talent.

that'll put the Turkish Aerospace Industry back by 20 years then................ good move

Can we call the Brazillians??

Cannot fathom May cosying with Erdogan - worst human rights record in "almost" Europe, more journalists locked up than anywhere else, and I suspect the "coup" was a put up job so that he could put it down and look "strong". A man to be kept at the far end of a very long barge pole IMHO

Desperate need to show that we "can still do deals" after BREXIT

This could make Tony Bliars friends look like decent people............

£100M is a rather small amount in the world of military aircraft development and production.
For reference, Typhoon development is stated at between £20 and 37Bn, each airframe at up to £55M and "a modification programme" to enable it to do ground attack (!!) is said to be costing over £600M.

What exactly are BAe going to be doing? It doesn't sound like a large slice of a potentially huge pie.

Exactly what crossed my mind. On the one hand we are criticising the Assad regime in Syria and on the other we are cosying upto a new dictator in the making.

I refer to my earlier post about the eventual scope of the programme. This is the start and it is a measure of the trust that Turkey normally guards closely, that it is prepared to partner with BAES and HMG.

Moreover, Geography doesn't change. I agree that the trajectory of Turkey doesn't look to good a the moment, but it is the extended Front Line of the UK in terms of defeating Daesh, counter-terrorism, reducing irregular migrant numbers, interdicting organised crime (narcotics, people smuggling etc) and is NATO's southern Flank against Russian expansionism. For these reasons the UK has to have good relations with whoever is in charge...added to the fact that c 2 million UK nationsla visit Turkey every year as tourists.

In October 2015 Turkey asked for assistance from NATO to provide assurance against increasing Russian aggression. The UK responded very rapidly and within a few days there was a survey team from High Wycombe and PJHQ, surveying Incirlik Air Base, with an view of deploying Typhoons as a deterrence measure. The MOD made that offer through NATO...but we were the only country who was prepared to pony up assets, with other countries viewing this as a Turkish problem. If the call had come from Poland, for example, I am sure there would have been a more robust response from the Alliance members.

Turkey is an F35 partner and plays a role in the manufacture of F35 airframe components - so I'm presuming security is not considered a huge issue.

The £100m deal is not new - the project was started in 2010. There is also talk of tech transfer of the EJ200 for the project. The plan is for a super-cruising F-22 lookalike - so this might be a very interesting project to get involved in.

Great darts by TM for flagging it up straight after holding hands with POTUS. We've heard nothing but EU propaganda up until now about the UK's likely outcome in the Article 50 negotiations. A few more examples of how the UK is free to trade without garnering 27 signatures over 10 years might inject some realism into the process. Turkey was a particularly smart choice as the EU has been shutting it out.

As far as the moral high ground about who we trade with goes, TM has specifically stated that we will not make the same high-handed mistakes as TB made in trying to enforce our own model on everyone else. And if we are on friendly terms - we have more chance of discussion and persuasion.

This is a trainer, right?

Conceptual designs look a bit spiffy for a trainer: :)

http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/...soldcktjy.jpeg
I think the Turks want to replace their F-16s with something less expensive than F-35s.

Hmm, BAE collaborate on a future combat aircraft with another nation. Might put them in a good place when the Typhoon replacement rears its head -assuming of course it won't be unmanned.

Could an Air Defence fighter ever be unmanned or remotely operated? Physics would dictate that you would have a (small) lag time between the observation, command and execution of any manouvre or operation.

Once you have sensor fusion across every spectrum (MW/IR/Visual) the rest is down to the core logic but we are a long way from that. As with self-driving road cars versus Formula 1 race cars, we will see airline pilots replaced first. Fully automated FJs twirling around each other in 6th Gen "dogfights" are at least 30 years away and probably more like 50.

But would you really want to hang a nuke on one of them ?