US suspends F-35 program deliveries to Turkey over Russian arms

The United States said Monday it was halting all deliveries and joint work with Turkey on the F-35 fighter jet program after the NATO ally insisted on a major arms purchase from Russia.

After months of warnings, the United States said that Turkey's decision to buy Russia's S-400 missile system was incompatible with remaining part of the emblematic US warplane program.

"Until they forgo delivery of the S-400, the United States has suspended deliveries and activities associated with the stand-up of Turkey's F-35 operational capability," Pentagon chief spokesman Charles E. Summers Jr. said.

"Should Turkey procure the S-400, their continued participation in the F-35 program is at risk," he said in a statement.

US officials have voiced concern that, with Turkey in both camps, Russia could obtain F-35 data to improve the accuracy of the S-400 against Western aircraft.

The Pentagon said that it had started to look at secondary sources to produce parts for F-35s that were being developed in Turkey.

"We very much regret the current situation facing our F-35 partnership with Turkey, but the (Defense Department) is taking prudent steps to protect the shared investments made in our critical technology," Summers said.

Turkey had planned to buy 100 F-35A fighter jets, with pilots already training in the United States. The plane's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, said that contracts with Turkish companies to build parts for the F-35 had been expected to reach $12 billion.

Among the eight Turkish companies involved in the purchase, Ayesas has been building a panoramic cockpit display for the F-35 and Fokker Elmo makes 40 percent of the electrical wiring and interconnection system, according to Lockheed Martin.

- Growing tilt to Russia -

The purchase of a Russian system is highly unusual for a member of NATO, the Western alliance forged to counter the Soviet Union.

The US suspension announcement comes two days before foreign ministers from the 29 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are due in Washington to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the alliance -- and hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party suffered a surprise rout in elections in major cities including Istanbul.

Erdogan, whose relations with the West have soured sharply as he cracks down on dissent at home, has increasingly looked to Moscow as a partner. Russian tourists have made Turkey their top destination, providing a vital economic boost.

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov traveled to Turkey, where Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu insisted that the S-400 purchase would go ahead.

"We have an agreement with Russia and we are bound by it," Cavusoglu told reporters.

Hoping to offer an alternative, the United States last year approved the sale of Patriot missiles to Turkey -- a deal to which Ankara said it was open.

Four senators last week proposed legally barring the transfer of F-35s to Turkey if it buys the S-400. One of the senators, Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, praised the Pentagon suspension and pledged to "continue working in the Senate to prevent this dangerous possibility from becoming a reality."

- Rocky ties with US -

Turkey's relations with the United States plunged last year when President Donald Trump imposed tariffs, battering Turkey's lira, over the jailing of an American pastor detained as part of a mass roundup following a coup attempt against Erdogan.

The pastor, Andrew Brunson, was freed and Trump appeared to grow fond of Erdogan, speaking to him before his sudden decision to withdrew US troops from Syria.

But tensions quickly resurfaced with the United States fearful that Erdogan will strike US-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria and a Turkish court trying a US consulate staffer, Metin Topuz, on charges of spying.

Topuz, a Turkish citizen, is accused of ties to Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish preacher who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States. Erdogan has repeatedly demanded that the United States extradite Gulen, whom the Turkish leader accuses of fomenting the coup.

In hidden mountain air base, Albania stores MiGs for sale
Gjad�r, Albania (AFP) April 1, 2019 - On a barren hillside in northern Albania lies a portal to the country's communist past: a massive steel door creaks open to reveal a hidden former air base burrowed into the heart of the mountain.

Made up of 600 metres (1,980 feet) of tunnels that once teemed with military life, the secret Gjader air base is now a depot for dozens of hulking communist-era MiG jets collecting dust in the darkness.

Three decades after shedding communism, Albanian authorities are still trying to sell off the Soviet and Chinese-made aircraft, of which there are dozens more in another nearby air base.

"Aligning our equipment and our weapons to the NATO standards" is part of Albania's "new chapter" with the Alliance, which it joined in 2009, says the military's Chief of Defence Bardhyl Kollcaku.

As for the MiGs, "apart from nostalgia, (for which) we will keep some of them in our museum... the rest will be treated according to the domestic legislation for sale or other usage," he told AFP.

The communist-era jets, which include MiG-19, MiG-17 and MiG-21 models among others, have been out of commission for well over a decade.

But museums, collectors and other aviation aficionados have already expressed interest in giving the relics a new home.

When Albania first discussed selling the MiGs in 2016, requests came in from the Air and Space Museum in France, as well as a flight school in Germany.

Yet no sales have been completed to date, with legal paperwork holding up the process.

Individuals are also on the waiting list, including Albania-based French businessman Julien Roche, who plans to install the plane in his garden.

"It's not so easy to get this kind of aircraft now, because all of them have been mainly destroyed, not stored like they are in Albania," he told AFP, from a house brimming with eccentric items.

He has put his name down for one of the oldest models, a Chinese-made MiG-15 with a price tag of around 10,000 euros ($11,000), which was used by North Koreans before being gifted to Albania.

- Closed to the public -

Like the 7,000 concrete security bunkers that dot the countryside, the clandestine Gjader base was part of former communist dictator Enver Hoxha's plan to fortify his hermit state against feared foreign invasions that never materialised.

More than 600 military personnel used to work inside the maze of tunnels that were shuttered in 2000 and remain off limits to the public.

Jets flown after 2000 used a different military base, until the last of the planes were taken out of service following an accident in 2004.

After opening up the dark and damp tunnels to AFP, the base's current commander Fatmir Danaj admits the old planes evoke an unexpected nostalgia.

"The pleasure of flying and of working in this base was unimaginable," 52-year-old Danaj said, as he shone his torch on a row of silver jets, which, as a young pilot, he used to land on the runway that feeds into the mountain.

Today, the scores of rooms inside -- including a cafeteria, dorms and array of other offices -- are empty except for a scattering of debris and the faded signs on their doors announcing their function.

In one empty office, a reminder still hangs on the wall: "Attention! Put documents in their files and submit them to the secret administrative office before leaving the workplace."

- NATO comes to 'Stalin City' -

During his nearly 40 years of rule, Hoxha turned Albania into the most militarised country in the Balkans.

That backfired spectacularly in 1997, seven years after the fall of communism when the country was swept up by an armed rebellion that saw citizens raid armories and military bases for weapons.

Gjader was also breached, with people looting weapons and selling parts of some MiGs as scrap metal.

Today the Albanian airforce has only a small fleet of helicopters and its air space is protected by NATO.

In a sign of the changing times, the first NATO base in the Balkan region will be built in Albania's Kucova, once known as "Stalin City" as a symbol of friendship at that time between Albania and the Soviet Union.

But Danaj still dreams of seeing Gjader returned to its former glory.

"The base could serve as a museum, but with its modern infrastructure, its tunnel system, it can be functional again and serve NATO," he said.

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Boeing awarded $87.5M for work on Harrier trainers
Washington (UPI) Mar 29, 2019
Boeing was awarded two contracts worth $87.5 million to development, upgrades and support of the U.S. Marines' T/AV-8B Harrier II trainer aircraft. The contracts for the two-seat trainer version of the AV-8B Harrier aircraft include engineering and avionics upgrades, the Department of Defense announced Thursday. In one contract, Boeing was awarded $71.3 million to provide engineering and integrated logistics support to maintain the T/AV-8B Harrier during the aircraft's post-production su ... read more