Turkey, with its plan to purchase 100 fighter jets — for which it was going to shake hands with Lockheed Martin for $16 billion, but later suspended due to the American aerospace company’s refusal to share technology with it — has also received an offer from Europe, one that includes the sharing of the know-how Turkey wants.
Speaking to Today’s Zaman on the condition of anonymity, a leading executive from European Eurofighter — an aerospace consortium of Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom — said they agree to fulfill Turkey’s demands to that end. “We are ready to share all software codes and critical technologies with Turkey,” the official said. Previously the Lockheed Martin director responsible for the F-35s Turkey initially agreed to buy said that what Turkey wanted was not acceptable because of “financial and cost constraints.” The American company declined to comment on the issue despite Eurofighter’s offer.
Earlier in March, Turkey announced that it was putting the planned purchase of 100 F-35 fighter jets from the US on hold because the Pentagon refused to share the source code used in the software designed for the aircraft, as well as the codes that might be used externally to activate the planes. Lockheed is the Pentagon’s top supplier by sales. It builds the F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter aircraft, as well as the Aegis naval combat system and THAAD missile defense.
Without the source code, Turkish engineers wouldn’t be able to make any changes to the software that operates the jets. The external flight codes are equally important, if not more so, as they can be used externally to navigate the jets.
via zaman
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