America deceived Saudi Arabia..!? Fighter aircraft from Turkey...

Sowmiya Sriram
America deceived Saudi Arabia..!? fighter aircraft from Turkey...
saudi arabia was interested in buying America's 5th generation F-35 fighter aircraft. The united states had said that it would provide this aircraft 4 years ago, but it kept delaying it. With the affection for israel behind this, saudi arabia has now decided to buy Turkey's Khan 5th generation aircraft. There is a good friendship between saudi arabia and the United States. There is a good commercial relationship between the two countries. The united states has a 5th generation aircraft. As for the united states, it has the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, the 5th generation aircraft. Apart from this, only russia and china have 5th-generation fighter jets. In this situation, saudi arabia decided to buy the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet from the United States. As an important country in the Middle east region, saudi arabia has the obligation to strengthen its air force.
Thus, since 2017, saudi arabia has expressed its interest in buying the F-35 fighter jet from the United States. Subsequently, representatives of saudi arabia and the united states held several rounds of negotiations. Following these negotiations, the united states agreed to provide the F-35 fighter jet to Saudi Arabia. The announcement was made in 2020. saudi arabia was happy about this. But the US did not provide the F-35 fighter jet to saudi arabia as promised. It kept dragging its feet. There are some important things behind this. That is, Saudi Arabia's intervention in the Yemeni civil war and Saudi Arabia's increased military cooperation with china are important. On top of all these, there is another thing.
That is, israel is in the Middle east region. While there are many Muslim countries around, israel is the only Jewish country in the Middle East. There is a good friendship between israel and the US. In addition, there is an important agreement between the two countries. In other words, the agreement stipulates that the military equipment provided to israel by the united states in the Middle east region should be more modern than that of other countries.
Accordingly, selling the American F-35 fighter jet to saudi arabia in the context of israel using it would be a violation of this agreement. As a result, the united states has been delaying the sale of the F-35 fighter jet to Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, in May 2024, the US Pentagon stated that "Saudi Arabia is interested in purchasing the F-35 fighter jet. A final decision will be made after further consultations." However, even though it was December, no decision had been made by the US.
Saudi Arabia is deeply dissatisfied with this. It was expected that saudi arabia might move towards russia and china since it did not receive the 5th generation aircraft from the US. Because russia has the MiG-31 and Sukhoi Su-75, the 5th generation aircraft, and if we take china, the Chengdu J-20 and Shenyang J-35.
However, those countries may also consider providing the aircraft. In addition, saudi arabia thinks that buying aircraft from russia and china could cause a rift in the US relationship. Because the US has a tendency to conflict with countries including russia and China. However, saudi arabia has taken another important decision to strengthen its air force.
That is, it was said that saudi arabia could buy 4+ generation fighter jets such as the French Dassault Rafale or the Eurofighter Typhoon. But now saudi arabia has joined hands with Turkey. That is, it has been decided to buy the Turkish KAAN 5th generation stealth fighter jet.
In this regard, a high-level meeting was held in the Turkish capital Istanbul with Saudi Arabia's air Force commander Turki bin Bandar Al Saad, Saudi Arabia's minister of Aviation Khalid bin Hussein Al Biari, and Turkey's Defense industries President Halk Korgan. It was at this meeting that saudi arabia decided to purchase the Khan 5th generation aircraft from Turkey.
If we take turkey, that country has also just started manufacturing 5th generation aircraft. Even though turkey is at the forefront of drone and aircraft technology, turkey manufactured the 5th generation aircraft only in february last year (2024). It is noteworthy that saudi arabia has decided to purchase the 5th generation aircraft from that country, as it plans to induct 20 aircraft into the Turkish air Force by 2028.

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