In July 2019, during the twilight of the first Trump administration, the Defense Department kicked Turkey out of the F-35 joint strike fighter program. While analysts can debate the wisdom of including Turkey in the F-35 program to start with, its expulsion was warranted: By purchasing Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, Turkey put NATO at risk in two ways.
For a start, integrating the S-400 into Turkish air defense, as Turkey did last week, betrays NATO codes and systems. Even if the S-400 remained an independent, self-contained system, its tracking of Turkey’s F-35s could enable Russian engineers to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities. That Turkey seeks to build its own domestic defense industry and can reverse engineer any advanced technology it is given makes the idea of selling the F-35 even more self-defeating.
Even though Turkey uses its jet fighters and bombers mostly to harass its neighbors, Greece and both Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish regions, Turkey’s partisans in the West and those who believe an anti-American, anti-Israel ideologue such as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can be bought have continued to seek to appease it with modern aircraft. National security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed through a sale of advanced F-16s, and, on his way out, Jeff Flake, a former Republican senator whom Biden appointed to the Turkey ambassadorship, sought to revive the F-35 sale, Turkish behavior and betrayal notwithstanding.
Exposure of Flake’s fancy short-circuited that Turkish attempt to acquire the next-generation stealth fighter, but now, it appears Erdogan seeks a backdoor. Erdogan’s son-in-law, Selcuk Bayraktar, chairman of the board and the chief technology officer of Baykar, Turkey’s primary drone and advanced military manufacturer, recently purchased Italian aircraft manufacturer Piaggio Aerospace. While Turkey previously betrayed its legal commitments by refusing to return F-35 schematics dating to when it was in the program, the acquisition of Piaggio Aerospace increases Turkey’s inroads as the Italian company manufactures turbine engine vanes for the F-35.
Erdogan’s behavior today represents a threat trifecta: Constant efforts to acquire the F-35’s secrets by any means necessary should raise alarm bells. Finally, Erdogan repeatedly betrays NATO and the West to Russian or Islamist interests.
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As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to begin a new term, it is essential he not simply treat Turkey’s acquisition of the F-35 or any of its component technology as a threat to the United States.
He must recognize that forcing European members to pull their own weight in defense budgets is only half the battle — preventing them from selling technology to enemies is just as important.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is the director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.