At the 2022 NATO summit held in Madrid at the end of June, United States President Joe Biden reiterated his support for the planned purchase of 40 units of the latest variant of the F-16 fighter jet and 80 modernization kits for the F-16 fleet currently operated by the Turkish Air Force. In the US, sales of defense equipment need to be approved by parliament in Washington.
And after long lobbying, the US parliament finally approved the plan to sell the latest F-16 package (Block 70) or known as the F-16 Viper. However, there are a number of binding conditions, what are they?
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Quoted from savunmasanayist.com (14/7/2022), the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would 'limit' Turkey's Block 70 F-16 Program. The bill includes banning the sale of Block 70 F-16s unless Turkey guarantees that Greek airspace will not be violated.
A member of the House of Representatives, Frank Pallone, yesterday submitted a bill containing plans for supplying F-16 Block 70 to Turkey. In short, in the bill presented by Frank Pallone; If Turkey uses Block 70 F-16 fighter jets then it will buy from the US for America's interests and guarantees it will not violate Greek airspace with the aircraft, then the sale of the aircraft to Turkey can be "opened".
Pallone's bill was finally passed with 244 votes in favor and 179 abstentions. The bill will now be added to the U.S. Department of Defense budget law 2023 (NDAA). President Biden has the right to veto this bill, but only 5 bills have been vetoed so far in NDAA history.
Defense Industry Analyst Arda MEVLÜTOĞLU summarizes the process as follows: “As you know, the NDAA has a draft prepared by the House and Senate. These are combined in a mixed commission, converted into a single draft, and submitted to the US President.
Quoted from Reuters.com (6/4/2022), the Joe Biden administration believes the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey will be in line with US national security interests and will also support the long-term alliance between NATO countries. Although there has been a positive response from Biden, it has not yet become an agreement, because some members of congress do not explicitly support it.
In early April 2022, there were 50 US congressmen who rejected Turkey's planned purchase of F-16s. They urged the Biden Government to reject Ankara's purchase, citing what they said was Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's lack of commitment to NATO and a "grave violation of human rights."
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