At a London seminar at the end of June, a senior British diplomat responded to Al-Monitor's questions about the implications of Prime Minister Theresa May’s unexpected visit to Ankara in January 2017 and other overt signs of rapprochement between Britain and Turkey. He started off by saying, “History repeats itself,” and continued, “Just as in 1580s, when England and the Ottoman Empire entered into economic and security cooperation against the Catholic bloc in continental Europe, today the same dynamics stimulated the cooperation between Turkey and England.”

Defense, the aerospace industry and security are the most visible fields of cooperation between the two countries. May, who on Jan. 28 became the first high-level European leader to visit Turkey after the July 2016 coup attempt, witnessed the signing of a critical 100 million-pound ($135 million) contract between the British defense and aerospace company BAE Systems and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS). The two companies will cooperate in developing the engine, avionics, radar and software for the fifth generation TF-X Turkish stealth warplane project.

Turkey has never before developed and manufactured a warplane. Lacking the experience and human resources for such a monumental project, Turkey needs an experienced partner.

With a budget of $7 billion, Ankara will develop the TF-X at the TAI-TUSAS plant near Ankara that previously worked on F-16s. Planning for the TF-X will be completed by 2019. The first prototype will be available in 2023 and the planes will start flying for the Turkish air force after 2030. In the long tern, the plan calls for production of 250 planes for Turkey and then marketing them to third countries, primarily in Europe.