President Joe Biden can help smooth tensions with Turkey and prevent the NATO ally from further defense purchases from Russia if he throws his support behind the acquisition of 40 F-16s and about 80 modernization kits at an expected meeting on the sidelines of the ...
Turkey
F-15s from the 493rd Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, England, have deployed to Iceland to take up the NATO Air Policing mission there for the second time in less than a year. The three F-15C/Ds, plus an F-15E from the 493rd’s sister unit, the 494th ...
The Biden administration is continuing its predecessor’s policy of excluding Turkey from the international F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby indicated Feb. 5. Pentagon officials kicked Turkey, a NATO ally, out of the F-35 coalition because it bought the S-400 air defense ...
The State Department on Dec. 14 announced sanctions against Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries over its purchase of Russia’s S-400 surface-to-air missile system. SSB is banned from receiving “U.S. export licenses and authorizations,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote. The U.S. has frozen the assets ...
The Senate Appropriations Committee wants to keep a closer eye on the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program. Lawmakers added multiple provisions to the committee’s version of the fiscal 2021 defense spending bill that call for more reports on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, as well ...
No personnel from the 425th Air Base Squadron at Izmir Air Station, Turkey—a geographically separated unit of Incirlik Air Base's 39th Air Base Wing—were harmed in a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that shook Turkey and Greece on Oct. 30, Wing Commander Col. John B. Creel wrote in ...
The Air Force’s push for deployable, multi-capable Airmen has extended to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, a base on the southern flank of NATO, near Russia’s doorstep. Agile Combat Employment has taken hold service -wide, with wings and major commands exercising how it can train one ...
Six B-52s on Aug. 28 overflew all North Atlantic Treaty Organization member nations, both in Europe and in North America, as part of a mission called “Allied Sky” that was designed to “demonstrate NATO solidarity.” Four B-52s deployed to RAF Fairford, United Kingdom, flew over ...
The Pentagon will acquire eight F-35A jets previously bound for Turkey, plus six more F-35As under an $861.7 million contract. The contract modifies a previous fixed-price award and “exercises options to procure eight Lot 14 F-35A Lightning II repositioned aircraft as a result of the ...
Heidi Grant, once the Air Force's top weapon exports official, will now lead the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, marking a shift from uniformed to civilian leadership at that agency. DSCA's current leader, Army Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, is retiring. Grant will oversee arms sales that ...
A bipartisan group of four senators are demanding that the Pentagon explain why Turkey's expulsion from the F-35 program—to have been completed in March—now isn't expected until 2022. The senators said the sense of Congress on the matter is clear, and they want no further ...
The Air Force's F-35A fleet has become its third-largest fighter fleet—larger than that of the F-15C/D or E variants and larger than the F-22 Raptor fleet—and the type will likely surpass 250 air frames by the end of August, according to the Joint Program Office. ...
