There is a new chapter in the saga that is Türkiye’s involvement with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), which had been selected by prime contractor Lockheed Martin to be the second supplier for the aircraft’s center fuselage, alongside Northrop Grumman, is still in possession of F-35 Special Tooling and Special Test Equipment. This was disclosed in a request for information (RFI) posted by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) last autumn, seeking commercial shipping services for the repatriation of the equipment from TAI’s facility in Ankara to Northrop Grumman’s fuselage production facility in Palmdale, California for “storage and future use.”
Türkiye’s membership in the JSF program was suspended by the Trump Administration in July 2019 in response to the former’s acquisition of the S-400 air defense system from Russia. That TAI is still in physical possession of sensitive United States government property years after Türkiye was suspended from the JSF program may raise industrial espionage concerns. TAI’s Advanced Composites Manufacturing Facility, which was established to fulfill their work on the center fuselage, also developed the fuselage for their domestic Kaan fighter jet.
In advance of the 2019 suspension decision, then Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment Ellen Lord stated on May 10, 2019, that they had already been proactively engaged “for some time” in a search for alternative suppliers for the center fuselage and other components made by Turkish firms; 1005 different parts in total across both the airframe and engine. Later that month, the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) submitted a request to Congress to reprogram $206 million in unobligated funds, which were available due to contract cost savings, so that alternate suppliers could be qualified for the JSF program.
Per a May 2020 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, following the suspension decision, Under Secretary Lord directed the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) to qualify alternative sources and cease new orders from Turkish suppliers after March 2020. Deliveries from Turkish firms were expected to continue through 2022 though, as to avoid delays to aircraft delivery. A subsequent GAO report released in April 2022 stated: “all of the 817 airframe parts and 181 of the 188 engine parts” which had been supplied by Turkish firms now had qualified alternative sources in place, and that the remaining 7 engine parts would be qualified by March 2022. A third GAO report from May 2023, citing figures from Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney, estimated that “the change in suppliers will increase the cost per airframe by between $800,000 and $1 million” and “the cost of the engine will increase by about $300,000”.
Although the assembly of the center fuselage itself did not require a new qualified vendor, as Northrop Grumman has maintained primary responsibility for this, they and Lockheed Martin signed a letter of intent with Rheinmetall in February 2023 to “establish a second F-35 center fuselage integrated assembly line in Germany”. With this step, the impact of Türkiye’s removal from the program will be completely mitigated. Mike Shoemaker, then Lockheed Martin’s Vice President of F-35 Customer Programs, commenting on the announcement, stated “the F-35 center fuselage production in Germany will be vital to meet the growing global demand for F-35s”. Since then, demand has only continued to grow, with Czechia, Greece and Romania all becoming Foreign Military Sales customers for the JSF, and existing customers, including Israel and South Korea, ordering additional aircraft.
Ground was broken on the German production facility in August 2023, and it is expected to be completed this spring, with production commencing in the summer. Rheinmetall confirmed to Defense Archives that the construction of the new facility in Weeze is on schedule and that production is still expected to commence “mid-2025”. They also advised that the production tooling for the facility was coming from Northrop Grumman and is “expected to arrive shortly”.
With no indication that a formal solicitation has even been issued to follow the RFI though, it may be the case that TAI still has the Special Tooling and Test Equipment at their facility. If Northrop Grumman is counting on that same equipment to stand up the new facility in Germany, then it casts a level of doubt on it being delivered on time. Defense Archives submitted requests for comment to both Northrop Grumman and TAI in search of additional clarification on the situation, but did not receive responses. NAVAIR and the F-35 JPO also did not respond to Defense Archives’ requests for comment. Lockheed Martin declined to comment for this story.