Agreement

Turkey will buy aircraft from the US: Boeing and F16 and F35 fighters on the shopping list

Boeing and Lockheed aim for big sales to Turkey: orders likely to coincide with Erdogan's visit to Trump on 25 September

20 September 2025

Il presidente turco Tayyip Erdogan tiene un discorso durante il Teknofest, il più grande festival aerospaziale e tecnologico del Paese, a Istanbul, Turchia, 19 settembre 2025. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

3' min read

Key points

Jobs in sight
For Boeing shares up
The F35 affair

3' min read

Boeing and Lockheed Martin are set to win orders from Turkey as early as next week for up to 250 commercial aircraft and additional F-16 fighter jets, possibly resolving a long-standing dispute over the F-35.

President Donald Trump announced Friday in a social media post that he will host Turkish President Rep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington on 25 September. The two leaders will meet to discuss possible sales and, at the same time, work to resolve the issue of F-35 stealth fighter jets that has soured relations between Nato allies after Ankara's purchase of a Russian air defence system.

The orders in sight

The meeting is scheduled after the annual high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York.

According to Turkish officials familiar with the matter, the Turkish president will seek deals ranging from defence to energy worth tens of billions of dollars. Turkey plans to buy 40 F-35 jets, 40 F-16 Vipers and ammunition, including bombs and missiles, the officials said. The two sides are still negotiating the price of the F-16s, the officials said.

"We are working on a number of commercial and military agreements with the president, including the large-scale purchase of Boeing aircraft, a major F-16 deal and the continuation of talks on the F-35, which we expect to be concluded successfully," Trump said. "President Erdogan and I have always had a very good relationship."

Boeing has set the framework for a deal with Turkish Airlines. A visit to the White House and upcoming bilateral talks in October are among the possible venues under discussion, one of the sources said. Negotiations for the purchase of several aircraft are still ongoing and, according to some sources, the final contours of the agreements could change.

Boeing deferred any comment, while Yahya Ustun, a spokesman for Turkish Airlines, said: 'We have been discussing an order with Boeing for some time, but a final decision has not yet been made'. A representative of Lockheed forwarded the questions to the US government. The Turkish Defence Ministry declined to comment.

Aircraft orders continue to play a prominent role in Trump's campaign to reduce the US trade deficit, a phenomenon that has pushed Boeing's sales this year to exceed those of Airbus SE, its European rival.

Boeing stock on the rise

Boeing shares were up 22 per cent this year at Friday's close, compared with a 35 per cent rise in the S&P 500 Aerospace & Defense index over the same period. Boeing was unchanged at $215.65 in after-market trading. The deal would represent the culmination of years of negotiations with Turkish Airlines, which has publicly discussed its goal of nearly doubling its fleet over the next decade and establishing Istanbul as a global aviation hub to rival neighbouring Dubai. Turkish President Ahmet Bolat said last year that the flag carrier was in talks with Boeing to order about 250 aircraft, most of them 737 Max along with 75 widebody 787 Dreamliners. Airbus concluded an agreement for 230 jets with Turkish two years ago.

Erdogan has promoted a strong national airline to help put Turkey and its $900 billion economy on the global map. The airline claims to fly to most countries in the world, using its Istanbul hub as a major stopover airport.

The F35 affair

Turkey was an original partner in Lockheed's F-35 stealth fighter programme, but was excluded from participation after purchasing Russia's advanced S-400 missile defence system. This purchase resulted in congressional sanctions, known as Caatsa, targeting the domestic defence industry.

Turkey recognises that Trump may seek concessions to allow the purchase of F-35 jets, Turkish officials said. Ankara could agree to establish a military-technical mechanism to supervise the S-400 defence system in a controlled manner, although it remains opposed to abandoning it completely, the officials said.

US officials have repeatedly stated that any resolution on the F-35 depends on Turkey renouncing the Russian system.

In June, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, told the Turkish state news agency Anadolu that a resolution of the F-35 dispute was possible by the end of the year.