AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NATO member Turkey plans to buy 100 new-generation combat aircraft under a $10 billion (8.3 billion euro) project over the next 20 years, Anatolia news agency quoted a senior official as saying March 28.
By the end of the year, Ankara will make a choice between the U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, whose construction is led by Lockheed Martin, and the Eurofighter, being built by a European consortium, the head of the defense industries undersecretariat, Murad Bayar, said in Washington.
The new warplanes would replace F-16 and F-4 aircraft currently used by the Turkish Air Force, Bayar said.
View Pictures of F-16, JSF and Eurofighter in our Military Gallery links below:
F-16 (USA) :: F-35/JSF (USA) :: Eurofighter :: Turkey (pictures of military of turkey)
Under the project, the government is aiming to ensure that sub-contracts worth 5$ billion are awarded to Turkish companies, he added.
