Turkey no longer official ‘global participant’ of F-35 fighter jets program

Turkey was removed from the list of “global participants” on the official website for the United States’ F-35 fighter jets. Turkey’s participation in the supply chain was suspended following Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 defense system.

Turkey was removed from the list of “global participants” on the United States’ fighter jet F-35’s official website following Ankara’s purchase of the S-400 defense system, independent news portal T24 reported on July 17.

Turkey was, until recently, one of the nine main contributors in the F-35 website along with the U.S., Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and England.

The Pentagon had announced the suspension of Turkey’s role in the F-35 supply chain following the first delivery of the S-400 defense system parts to Ankara on July 12, 2019.

The U.S. Congress mandated Ankara to move the S-400 defense system outside of Turkey to become a contributor again.