By Humeyra Pamuk and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to push ahead with the sale of dozens of jet engines to Turkey worth hundreds of millions of dollars despite objections from some members of the U.S. Congress, four sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, an important gesture to Ankara ahead of a NATO summit there next month.
The engines, produced by General Electric, will power Turkey’s first indigenous combat jet KAAN, a major project launched in 2016 as part of NATO member Ankara’s efforts to be more self-sufficient in its defense. One of the sources said the package will be worth more than $700 million.
Turkey and the United States have generally enjoyed warm ties under Trump, who regularly praises Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. However, their relationship has been tested by a long-standing disagreement over Washington’s decision to remove Turkey from the F-35 stealth fighter jet program and impose sanctions after Ankara acquired Russian-made S-400 air defense systems, which the United States says pose a security threat.
While the engine sale is likely to be welcomed in Ankara, analysts say it falls well short of Turkey’s broader goal of returning to the F-35 program.
“Acquiring the engines is certainly important for Turkey, but it is also the lowest-hanging fruit for a US administration that has made far more ambitious promises to Ankara, including Turkey’s return to the F-35 program,” said Gonul Tol, director of the Washington-based Middle East Institute’s Turkish program.
“The real test of whether Washington and Ankara can open a new chapter in bilateral relations lies there,” Tol said.
U.S. law does not permit Turkey to operate or possess the S-400 system if it wishes to rejoin the F-35 program. However, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said in December that the warm relationship between Trump and Erdogan helped the two sides hold “the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade.”
The Turkish foreign ministry declined to comment.
Turkey will host NATO leaders on July 7 to 8 amid tensions within the alliance over burden-sharing, defense spending and U.S. complaints about allies’ role in efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open during the U.S.-Iran war.
OBJECTIONS
Turkey’s 2019 acquisition of the Russian air defense systems weakened support for Ankara particularly in the U.S. Congress, although lawmakers ultimately approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets in 2024.
Some of that sentiment persists. Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, had raised objections during an informal review process and has not given his green light for the package, two of the sources, including a U.S. official, said.
Despite that, the sale is expected to be finalized in the coming days, followed by a formal notification from the State Department to Congress, the sources said. The congressional review process is designed to allow lawmakers to weigh in on large sales but the objections are not binding if a U.S. administration wishes to press ahead with the sale.
The Trump administration has bypassed, or threatened to bypass, congressional holds on several weapons sales.
“As a matter of general policy, we do not comment on pending arms transfers. Official correspondence with Congress is conducted through official channels,” a State Department official said.
The decision to move forward with the sale comes nearly a year after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan publicly complained about what he described as a hold-up in the process.
Turkish officials were hoping to secure an approval on the sale shortly after Erdogan’s meeting with Trump at the White House last September.
Frustrated by past hot-cold ties with the West and some arms embargoes, Turkey has developed its own KAAN stealth fighter. Yet officials acknowledge it will take years before it replaces the American-made F-16s that form the backbone of its air force.
Jet upgrades are part of a broader effort to strengthen layered air defences that also includes Turkey’s domestic “Steel Dome” project and an expansion of long-range missile coverage.
“The acquisition of 80 F110-GE-129 engines from U.S. was part of the original program plan of the Kaan indigenous combat aircraft development project,” said Arda Mevlutoglu, defense analyst and CEO of Mergen Analytical Strategies.
“The Kaan program is composed of “blocks”, similar to many U.S. aircraft programs. Until the development of the indigenous powerplant is complete for later blocks, the Kaan will enter service with the GE engine,” Mevlutoglu said.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara Editing by Don Durfee and Sanjeev Miglani)
