Turkey’s Erdogan, UK’s Starmer ink $11B Eurofighter deal in Ankara
Turkey plans to purchase a total of 44 Eurofighter jets, the Turkish defense chief said, including 20 from the UK and 12 each from Oman and Qatar.
ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed an agreement on Monday for Turkey to purchase 20 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from the United Kingdom.
Turkey first tabled its bid last year to buy 40 Eurofighter jets from the European consortium that manufactures them, but Defense Minister Yasar Guler said ahead of the signing ceremony that the total has since risen to 44, with the United Kingdom providing 20 at a cost of nearly $10.7 billion.
The agreement between Ankara and London was signed during Starmer’s first official visit to Ankara.
“The UK will provide Turkey with 20 new Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft with the option to provide more in the future,” Starmer said during a joint presser with Erdogan after a roughly two-hour-long meeting.
Erdogan described the deal as “a new milestone in our strategic relations” between Turkey and the United Kingdom. He added that a separate intergovernmental agreement on the implementation arrangements for the Eurofighter Typhoon jet procurement was signed by the two countries’ delegations during the talks.
Three Eurofighter jets belonging to the UK’s air force have already arrived at a military air base in Ankara, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement later Monday.
Turkey plans to source the remaining 24 jets from Oman and Qatar, with 12 used aircraft from each country, according to Guler.
Starmer’s visit to Turkey follows Erdogan’s Gulf tour last week that included stops in Qatar and Oman, where Turkey’s bid to acquire used Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 3A aircraft from Doha and Muscat was a top agenda item.
The consortium that manufactures the fighter jets consists of the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Germany, and its approval is also required for the secondary sale of the aircraft.
The United Kingdom has been at the forefront of the negotiations between Ankara and the European consortium. The two sides signed a preliminary agreement in July, after Germany, the only member to initially oppose the sale, reversed its stance earlier this year.
Turkey’s pursuit of Eurofighters came after it was blocked in 2019 from buying next-generation F-35 fighter jets under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act over its purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems. The act was overwhelmingly passed by the US Congress in 2017 to deter significant defense transactions with Russia.
Ankara is also seeking to purchase 40 new F-16 Block 70 fighter jets from the United States. Washington formally approved the sale in January 2024, but talks over the details are ongoing between Turkey and the United States, with Ankara seeking to scale back the $23 billion military sales package.
This story has been updated since its initial publication.
