Why the possible acquisition of the new American 40 F-16s by Turkey cannot change the facts in the Aegean where the Greek Air Force dominates?- Special analysis
“If the US agrees to sell us the new F-16 Block 70 aircraft and modernize the aircraft in stock, there is an air as if all of Turkey’s problems will be solved. However, this is not exactly the case,” he points out in an article Turkish media, the highlights of which are as follows:
“Greece received Rafale planes from France as well as Meteor missiles with a range of 320 kilometers.
This air-to-air missile has a range almost three times that of the AIM-120 missile we use.
It can be discouraging when you write the number like this, but there is another distance calculation called “No Escape Zone” in air-to-air missiles, meaning there is no escape from a launched missile.
When we do this calculation, we find that the Meteor missiles have a range of 100 km and the AIM type missiles we use have a range of 55 km, where it is impossible for fighter jets to escape
This is not the only problem, the ASEA radar in the nose of the Rafale aircraft is more efficient and has more advanced features than the mechanical radars of our current F-16s.
In other words, a Greek Rafale aircraft has a chance to spot our F-16 earlier and launch its missile.
ASELSAN will deliver the prototype of the domestic ASEA radar by the end of this year. If you say it’s over, it’s not
On July 5 this year, the domestic Gökdoğan air-to-air missile was successfully launched by the F-16 in Sinop. This is an important result that TÜBİTAK-SAGE has been working on since 2013.
By agreeing to pay a huge amount of money to the US, we got rid of the burden of having problems in the procurement process, with domestic means.
Most importantly, the domestic 5th generation TF-X combat aircraft will enter the Armed Forces inventory from 2030.
Meanwhile, Baykar’s Kızılelma drone project continues at full speed.
Apart from Turkey, only US and Chinese companies are currently working on an AI-powered stealth fighter jet.
There is also the issue of the “trauma” of the F-35. F-35s are no better aircraft in air-to-air combat than F-22s which the US does not export.
We call it the top tier Block 70-72 in the F-16, but we can talk about many advantages such as the radar range and take-off weight of the Block-60, which is produced only for the UAE, while there is also the top version of the F-16, to be produced jointly with India, which the Americans called the F-21.
As a result, we want to buy a plane, and they try to interfere with the destination. It is better to build our own fighter aircraft. Even buying air-to-air missiles had a licensing process and very serious costs, and that’s why we’re doing it ourselves.
Let me end this section with the balance the US has been unable to maintain in the Aegean
Meteor missiles cannot be launched by F-16s. They must be F-35, Rafale, Eurofighter or Swedish-made Gripen aircraft. When our domestic fighter jets and domestic missile system are activated, we will not have such problems.
The decision of Turkey and Israel to appoint mutual ambassadors will change all accounts in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Israel remembers many details in the problem-solving art of diplomacy that we hardly remember.
For example, medical supplies to Israel in May 2020 when the coronavirus was sweeping the world, allowing an Israeli plane to land in Turkey 10 years later.
Photos taken while President Herzog was received by the cavalry regiment during his visit to Ankara made the rounds in the Israeli media and the Israeli President announced the new era to his people
Much has been written in the last couple of days, from Israeli gas reaching Europe and the possibility that the Turkey-Israel-UAE triangle will create a completely different Middle East.
Small gestures may not solve problems by themselves, but it is a fact that they make it easier to solve problems.”
1. There is an admission by the Turks that our country’s Rafale fighters, thanks to the Meteor air-to-air missile and the AESA radar, make the difference in the Aegean, giving the lead to the Greek Air Force
2. The possible acquisition of 40F-16 BLOCK 70 from the USA and 80 upgrade kits of the same number of existing Turkish F-16s, does not solve the above problem
3. ASELSAN will deliver the ASEA domestic radar prototype by the end of this year.
4 domestic 5th generation TF-X combat aircraft will enter the Armed Forces inventory from 2030
5. It follows from the above that the intermediate solution for Turkey is not the purchase of F-16s from the USA, but the further deepening of the implementation of the program for the construction of an unmanned stealth fighter aircraft operating with artificial intelligence.
6. Erdogan looks forward to cooperation with Israel-UAE in order to change the facts in the Middle East
Our assessment is that Erdogan’s ambivalent attitude towards the Middle East and the approach he is attempting with Assad’s Syria, combined with his very good relations with Iran and Russia, with which he co-decided to ban the creation of a semi-independent Kurdish formation in the North Syria opposes US-Israeli interests in the region and that is why we do not foresee any real rapprochement between Tel Aviv and Ankara in the near future.
Finally, we point out that our country has acquired and will maintain air sovereignty in the Aegean for the next 7 years, a fact that greatly undermines Turkish plans
