Turkey will buy 100 F-35 from the United States

File photo of an F-35 jet fighter

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/228299.html

Turkey has announced that it will purchase 100 Lockheed Martin F-35 jet fighters from the United States at a cost of $16 billion while two of the planes have been initially ordered for delivery in 2015.

In a written statement in response to a parliamentary question from a member of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz announced that the ministry is not currently considering cancellation of the purchase, Today’s Zaman reported on Thursday.

Turkey announced in March 2011 that the planned purchase of jet fighters from the US was suspended as the Pentagon refused to share the source code used in the aircraft software, and codes for external activation of planes.

The 16-billion-dollar purchase is part of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program (JSF), an international development and acquisition program intended to replace a wide range of existing fighter, strike, and ground attack aircraft in the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and their allies.

The hi-tech jet fighters, manufactured by the US Lockheed Martin Company, are reportedly the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program ever.