F-35 project is bound to COLLAPSE without Turkey – Erdogan

The F-35 fighter jet project is doomed to fail if Washington keeps blocking the delivery of the promised aircraft to Turkey over its refusal to back out of an arms deal with Russia, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Speaking at a defense expo in Istanbul on Tuesday, Erdogan blasted Washington for applying “injustice and pressure” against its ally Turkey over the beleaguered F-35 deal.

The F-35 project is bound to completely collapse if it excludes Turkey.

The US blocked the delivery of the jets to Ankara, saying that the planes will not be shipped unless the country scraps its contract to buy the S-400 air defense missile systems from Russia. The US politicians argued that getting arms from Moscow undermines the security of NATO.

“No attempts to impose anything [on Turkey] will be accepted,” Erdogan warned.

“We have now begun to take steps in building our own national combat aircraft,” he told the audience, emphasizing that the nation plans to have its Air Force entirely comprised of domestically built warplanes in the future.

Turkish officials have earlier hinted that they will seek various defense technology, including warplanes, from other partners if the US fails to deliver the promised jets.

Ankara had also been repeatedly telling the US that it will stick to the S-400 purchase, insisting that as a sovereign nation it is free to buy arms from whoever it likes. The first pack of the S-400s is scheduled to be shipped to Turkey in July.

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