WASHINGTON - Turkey has signed an preliminary agreement to join the production phase for the US-driven Joint Strike Fighter, the US Department of Defense announced Friday.
US Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England and Turkish National Defense minister Vecdi Gonul signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on taking part in the JSF program in the production, sustainment and follow-on development phase.
In 2002 Turkey joined system development and demonstration phase for the JSF, or F-35, which is being developed in a 275 billion dollar program to replace several other key strike aircraft in the US Air Force including the F-16 and F/A-18.
The Pentagon plans to acquire 2,400 of the jets through 2027 and other countries plan to buy 2,000-3,500 of the jet.
Several other countries, including the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and the Britain have already signed MOUs for participating in the production phase.
The JSF took its first test flight in December.
01/26/2007 22:55 GMT