Washington: Ending a year of speculation on the fate of Turkey’s F-35s after the country was ousted from the joint strike fighter program last year, the US Department of Defense gave its definitive answer on July 20 evening in a characteristically anticlimactic manner — through its daily contract announcements.

The US Air Force will officially buy eight F-35A conventional takeoff and landing jets originally built by Lockheed Martin for Turkey as part of a US$862 million contract modification. The deal also contains an additional six F-35As built for the Air Force and modifications that will bring the Turkish jets in line with the US configuration.

The contract modification uses funding from the fiscal year 2020 budget to pay for the jets, which roll off the production line as part of Lot 14. The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin finalised a deal for lots 12, 13 and 14 in October 2019, which set the price of an Lot 14 A model at US$77.9 million per copy.

Turkey had planned to buy 100 F-35As over the course of the program, but was ejected from the program last July after accepting the S-400 air defence system from Russia after repeated warnings from US officials. At that point, Turkey’s first F-35s had already rolled off the production line and its pilots and maintainers were training to fly and fix them stateside alongside US personnel at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., and Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. However, the aircraft were never officially delivered to Turkey.

In the FY20 version of the National Defence Authorization Act, Congress gave the Pentagon permission to spend up to US$30 million to fly the first six Turkish F-35s to a location where they could be stored and preserved until the department came up with a plan for their use. The Senate’s version of the FY21 NDAA, which is still working its way through Congress, contains additional language that would allow the Air Force to accept, operate or even modify the first six Turkish F-35s.