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Business National |
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Turkey signs
memorandum
of understanding
for F-35 jets
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Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül signed a memorandum of understanding on Turkey's involvement in the production process of new generation F-35 warplanes.
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With this memorandum, Turkey became the ninth country to take part in the production process of the F-35 warplanes project. The other countries are the USA, the UK, Italy, Holland, Australia, Denmark, Canada and Norway. In the framework of the project, Turkey will be buying 100 F-35 warplanes in the next 15 to 20 years. A big portion of the $11 billion that Turkey will pay for the planes is expected to return to Turkey through sub-contracts given to the Turkish defense industry for production of the planes. At least 3,000 F-35 planes are expected to be produced under the leadership of the US company Lockheed Martin. Most of these planes will be bought by the US. The project is the world's biggest defense project with its total production cost of around $280 billion. Minister Gönül said in response to a question on the Europe-made Eurofighter warplanes that Turkey was not expected to purchase, that it had decided to buy around 30 F-16 planes instead. Gönül is expected to meet US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates later today. About the topics to be discussed at that meeting, Gönül said, "This is a business dinner and whatever is necessary will be discussed."
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WASHINGTON TODAY'S ZAMAN
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Benzer Haberler 
National
