Turkey is optimistic about the fifth-generation F-35, so it will become one of the minority shareholders of the aircraft. I thought that with the blessing of minority shareholder status, the follow-up procurement should be very smooth, but it was unexpected for Turkey and other countries. Turkey offended the United States by buying Russian S-400 air defense missile system, and almost went out of the F-35 fighter project.
The United States threatened that if Turkey did not give up Russia's S-400 air defense missile system, it would never get the F-35 fighter again, that is, it could only choose one of the two.
Although it was too difficult for Turkey, Turkey finally insisted on purchasing Russian-made S-400. As for the F-35 fighter, it may depend on whether the Hui people have space. Turkey insists on buying Russian S-400 air defense system.
Ignoring the threat of the United States actually stems from the ruthlessness of the United States, that is, Turkey has suffered losses from the United States in the matter of weapons and equipment, so Turkey will never give up what it has decided, no matter how threatened and lured by the United States.
Turkey wants to introduce a helicopter gunship, so it has launched a global tender. Elaine kamov's design bureau brought the Ka -50' Black Shark'. Fortunately, Ka-50 won the championship in one fell swoop and won the favor of Turkey.
In order to make the Ka -50 more suitable for Turkey, which is used to western weapon systems, Russia also invited Israeli experts to improve the Ka -50 helicopter gunship.
Therefore, the Ka -50 helicopter gunships provided by Russia and Turkey are no longer ordinary helicopter gunships, but specially tailored for Turkey.
Moreover, Turkey is quite satisfied with Russian helicopter gunships. It seems that this is a good thing to see, and when we came to Chengdu, the United States came to spoil the situation.
The United States said that as long as Turkey gave up the Russian Ka -50, it would provide Turkey with more advanced AH- 1Z Viper helicopter gunships. In contrast, Turkey naturally prefers western helicopter gunships, because on the one hand, it can save maintenance costs, on the other hand, it can better form combat effectiveness.
Therefore, Turkey chose to abandon Russia and chose American helicopter gunships. But unfortunately, after the Turkish-Russian cooperation project fell through, the United States delayed the negotiations for various reasons and finally refused to provide Turkey with "Viper" helicopter gunships.
Turkey had no choice but to choose the worst A- 129 mongoose light helicopter in the bidding scheme. Because of the spoiler of the United States, the replacement plan of Turkish armed helicopters was delayed again and again, so this lesson was learned. Turkey will stick to the end in the S-400 project.