Without a doubt, Erdogan’s moves following the coup attempt in the neighboring country exactly six years ago did anything but bring the Turkish war machine and especially the TuAF into a position of strength. Exactly the opposite. The Turkish Air Force has been pinned down, has lost hundreds of experienced Staff mainly Airmen, seen its fighter availability dramatically reduced, is losing its 5th generation F-35 Stealth aircraft and is now either appearing almost as a beggar to the US or blackmailing and threaten to buy new F-16 fighters but also to upgrade a large number of those it has in its Fleet.
On the contrary, during these six years, he saw the Greek Air Force taking steps and in some cases even leaps, conquering on the field a clear qualitative advantage that makes it dominant in the Aegean and in the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean. It saw the HAF proceed with the upgrade of 83 F-15 block 52+ and block52+ adv fighters, acquire in record time the mighty game changer French Rafale fighter, skyrocket its low availability of Mirage 2000-5 “Deltawings”, to modernize the 38 F-16 block 50 and keep both its first F-16s, the block 30s, as well as the “old wolves” but deadly in strike missions, the F-4 Phantoms, ready for war. While the big “blow” with which it prepares for a final “knockout” in the TuAF is without a doubt the entry into the F-35 program.
The irritation of Turkey just by the presence in the last few days of the American “invisible” fighters in Souda for the big air exercise “Poseidon Rage” is indicative of the shock that the F-35 has caused in the FIR of Athens, over the Aegean, the Ionian, the Cretan Sea but also the mainland of Greece. The aircraft which the TuAF had almost acquired, seen painted with the crescent moon, had already been flown by Turkish trainee pilots but ultimately failed to acquire. And while it spent almost 1.5 billion dollars to enter the program in anticipation of the colossal order of 100 F-35s that would give it the ultimate advantage in the region and put the Hellenic Air Force into huge concern.
But the arrogance of Tayyip Erdoğan and the raw blackmail he wanted to do to the West and especially to the USA backfired and brought her to the “ropes” to receive one blow after another. Lastly, the “block” of the House of Representatives on the sale and modernization of F-16 fighters, which gathers many chances – mainly thanks to Menendez – to be “sealed” by Congress as well. And to leave the TuAF fixated on seeing the Greek Rafale and Viper “sweep” the Aegean with state-of-the-art AESAs and mark anyone who attempts the slightest thing with the “killer” Meteors and the powerful Amraams. While Tayyip Erdoğan has set up the Russian S-400s around his “sarai” fearing a new coup.
