Pentagon vows to scale back Turkey’s F-35 component production
The Turkish participation in manufacturing of components for the U.S.
F-35 fighter jets will continue to decrease over the next two years, Russian
news site News.ru cited Pentagon spokesman Thomas Campbell as saying on Tuesday.
The production of components has been almost completely transferred to
other countries and will continue to decline in line with the U.S. policy
towards Turkey, Campbell said.
"There are no changes in US
policy regarding Turkey’s status in the F-35 program. Turkey’s membership in
the F-35 program has been suspended,’’ Campbell said. "Most of the
components’ production was moved [to other countries] in 2020, and it will
continue to decline in 2021 and 2022."
The United States excluded Turkey from an international consortium to
build the F-35 in July 2019, after the country received the first batch of
Russian S-400 air defence missiles.
Washington in December also imposed sanctions on the Turkish Presidency
of Defence Industries (SSB) as part of the Countering America’s Adversaries
Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA(..
Washington maintains the Russian surface-to-air missile system is
incompatible with NATO technology and a threat to the alliance.
