Erdogan goes shopping for Eurofighters – Orders 20 from the UK, buys 24 “lightly used” from Qatar and Oman

In an effort to antagonistic Greece’s wide aerial superiority implicit the Aegean, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is moving guardant with large-scale purchases of some caller and utilized Eurofighter Typhoon jets. On Monday afternoon, helium signed a $10.7 cardinal agreement successful Ankara for the acquisition of 24 Eurofighters, portion precocious past week helium stated that negotiations with Qatar and Oman for the acquisition of 12 + 12 “lightly used” Eurofighters were successful their last stages.

However, according to the British government, the first deliveries of the caller jets are scheduled for 2030, portion Turkish sources study that the utilized craft from the Gulf countries could commencement arriving arsenic aboriginal arsenic 2026.

The woody follows a preliminary memorandum signed successful July betwixt the 2 nations for the proviso of up to 40 Typhoons, with the consent of the European members of the Eurofighter consortium — Germany, Italy, and Spain — represented by Airbus, BAE Systems, and Leonardo.

“This historical woody with Turkey is simply a triumph for British workers, a triumph for the defence industry, and a triumph for NATO security,”
declared UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, adding that London and Ankara “play a decisive relation astatine the 2 ends of Europe successful tackling planetary challenges.”
Britain reportedly played a important relation successful easing Germany’s objections to the merchantability of weapons to Turkey.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey, accompanying Starmer successful Ankara, described the statement arsenic “the largest combatant pitchy export successful a generation,” adding that it “will support the Typhoon accumulation lines progressive for years” and “will fortify NATO’s deterrent powerfulness successful a captious region.”

Starmer besides stated that Turkey’s bid volition secure astir 20,000 jobs crossed the United Kingdom “for galore years.” Under the Eurofighter program’s accumulation allocation, astir 37% of each aircraft volition beryllium manufactured successful the UK, with the remainder produced by spouse nations.