Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet Daily News (online, 24.02.12) reports that Turkey is planning to purchase 100 multi-purpose F-35 jet fighters worth $16 billion, Turkish Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz has said, according to daily Milliyet. The first two of the military aircraft will be delivered by 2015, he said. The decision to order two F-35s was made last month. 

The multi-purpose F-35 fighter jets are being produced by the U.S.-based arms producer Lockheed Martin. Turkey became a member of the international F-35 consortium in 1999. Other partners of the consortium include Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Norway and Denmark. 

The statement indicates that Turkey is insisting on proceeding with its plan to purchase 100 F-35s even as many other partner countries, including the United States, have backtracked on their purchase plans due to delays and incremental costs.

The Pentagon postponed the purchase of 139 F-35 fighter jets for five years, while Britain said the decision regarding the number of F-35s that the country would buy would be delayed until 2015. Italy last week said its F-35 orders would be scaled down by 30%.

The U.S. Government plans to manufacture 2,443 F-35 fighter jets, according to a recent statement, Yilmaz said. “Purchase orders in the upcoming years regarding the [F-35 military aircraft] will be subsequently assessed depending upon the negotiations.”

Turkey has spent $315 million so far on three phases of the development of the F-35 fighter jets that the country is producing as part of the partnership, Yilmaz said.

Progress has also been made on negotiations with the United States over granting Turkey the permission to load war software, weapons and ammunition onto the aircraft independently, he said in a reply to a written question by Ismet Buyukataman, an opposition Nationalist Movement Party Deputy.

Responding to claims that the U.S. would not sell the software and block the independent integration of weapons and ammunition, the Minister said: “Negotiations regarding the independent loading of war software, weapons and ammunition to secure the independent deployment and maintenance of the F-35 in Turkey are continuing.”

Moreover, HDN (online, 24.02.12), under the title: “Turks have spent 353.3 million TL on guns, bullets during the last five years”, reports that Turks have spent roughly 353.5 million TL on guns in the last five years, according to data from the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK).

A total of 74,750 pistols, some 55,575 of which were manufactured domestically, and 164 million bullets have been sold since 2007. MKEK earned 103.2 million TL from locally manufactured pistols and 84.9 million TL from imported pistols. The revenue from bullet sales, meanwhile, was 161.5 million TL. MKEK also sold 612 rifles worth 3.9 million TL between 2007 and 2011.

Turks purchase an average of 15,000 pistols every year. The figure decreased to 13,838 in 2010, but the following year the sales recovered to 15,369. 

MKEK’s income last year from locally manufactured pistol sales totalled 24.3 million TL, while the income figure was 15.1 million TL for imported guns. Some 34.5 million bullets were sold last year, bringing 34.6 million TL into the coffers of MKEK, while the number of imported rifles was 169, worth a total of 933,000 TL.

The total income of MKEK from gun and bullet sales hit 74 million TL in 2011. MKEK sells varying models of pistols manufactured by 10 domestic and 15 foreign firms. 

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