Turkey signs 1.78 bln USD deal to buy F-16 fighters

Ankara, May 12: NATO member Turkey signed a 1.78 billion dollar deal to buy 30 F-16 fighter jets from U.S.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. as part of an ambitious programme to modernise its armed forces.

Under the agreement, the aircraft will be produced, assembled, tested and delivered by Turkish aerospace firm Tusas in Ankara, said Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul.

''With this project, Turkish engineers, technicians and workers will have new job opportunities and this will offset some of the costs of procuring these 30 planes,'' Gonul told a news conference after the contract was signed.

He said he hoped Tusas would be able to produce and assemble F-16s ordered by other countries from Lockheed Martin.

US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, hailed the deal as an example of close cooperation between the two NATO allies.

''This programme ... demonstrates what our alliance and collaboration mean in very practical terms ... It will help to propel Turkey forward as a competitive manufacturer of sophisticated defence and security equipment,'' Wilson said.

Turkey has the second largest military in NATO after the United States and an annual procurement budget of more than 4 billion dollar.

In March, Italy's Agusta Westland, owned by Finmeccanica SpA, won a tender worth 2.7 billion dollar to supply Turkey with 50 combat helicopters. They too will be produced in Turkey.

In its biggest ever procurement project, Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding in January to buy 100 F-35 joint strike fighters worth nearly 10.7 billion dollar from 2014 under a programme led by Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest defense contractor and the top supplier to the Pentagon, said the company and its suppliers would share about 1.1 billion dollar in revenue on the project. The company has annual revenue of about 40 billion dollar.

Lockheed's F-16, first produced in the 1970s, is the most widely used lightweight military jet, used by US forces and more than 20 other countries. More than 4,300 F-16 aircraft have been built from assembly lines in five countries.

Reuters>