US State Department Approves Potential Turkish F-16 Sale After Swedish NATO Approval
The United States State Department formally notified Congress Friday that it had approved a potential sale of F-16Vs and F-16 upgrade packages to Turkey, following the deposition of Turkish documents approving Swedish membership in NATO in the United States.
Arrival of the documents in the United States took place earlier on Friday, with their deposition marking the final step in Turkish approval of Sweden’s NATO membership, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the parliamentary bill that approved Sweden’s membership of the alliance on Thursday. Turkish lawmakers had approved the bill in a Tuesday evening vote.
Hungary is now the sole NATO member yet to ratify Sweden’s membership to the alliance, 20 months after Sweden formally applied to join in May 2022.
32 new single-seat F-16C Block 70 aircraft and eight new twin-seat F-16D Block 70 aircraft will be delivered should the sale receive congressional approval, alongside F-16V modernization packages for 79 Turkish aircraft currently in the Turkish Air Force inventory.
Both the new aircraft and the upgrade packages will include the AN/APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR). 149 radars will be supplied, with 40 installed on the new aircraft and 10 spare radars for them; while the upgrade packages include 79 radars to be installed and 20 spare radars.
The State Department estimates the total cost of the sale at $23 billion, inclusive of other electronic systems, hardware, support services and the following munitions:
- 952 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) AIM-120C-8 “or equivalent missiles”
- 864 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs Increment 1 (SDB-1)
- 96 AGM-88B High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM)
- 96 AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles (AARGM)
- 401 AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missiles
While American lawmakers may still vote to block the sale, Senator Ben Cardin, Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement in support of the potential sale on Friday:
“I commend the Turkish Parliament for its important vote in favor of approving Sweden’s NATO accession protocol, and President Erdogan for signing it. Sweden has long met all requirements necessary for accession to the Alliance, and this move represents a significant step forward in strengthening our Euro Atlantic community and interoperability in the face of the Putin regime’s unprovoked and illegal incursion into Eastern Europe.
My approval of Turkey’s request to purchase F-16 aircrafts has been contingent on Turkish approval of Sweden’s NATO membership. But make no mistake: this was not a decision I came to lightly. While Turkey plays a critical role in the region as a NATO ally, there is an urgent need for improvement on its human rights record, including the unjust imprisonment of journalists and civil society leaders, better cooperation on holding Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine, and on lowering the temperature in its rhetoric about the Middle East. My concerns have been strongly and consistently conveyed to the Biden administration as part of our ongoing engagement, and I am encouraged by the productive direction of their discussions with Turkish officials to address these issues.
This week’s heightened Hungarian obstruction of Sweden’s path forward to NATO, however, means that the Turkish action is not yet a moment to celebrate the overdue expansion of NATO. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has once again shown himself to be the least reliable member of NATO, in addition to playing the role of spoiler in the European Union’s effort to provide much-needed economic assistance to Ukraine.
I look forward to beginning this new chapter in our relationship with Turkey, expanding the NATO alliance, and working with our global allies in standing up to ongoing Russian aggression against its peaceful neighbors.”