ANKARA, Turkey — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to discuss the pending sale of 40 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Turkey on Monday when he meets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
The visit, Starmer’s first to Turkey since taking office last year, comes as the NATO allies deepen defense cooperation, and as Ankara seeks to leverage the advanced jets to bolster its air power and make up ground on regional rivals, including Israel.
Last week, Reuters reported, citing a source, that Ankara had proposed to its European allies and the US ways it could swiftly procure advanced fighter jets, amid talks to buy 40 Eurofighter Typhoons as well as US F-16s and advanced F-35 stealth fighters.
Strikes by Israel — the Middle East’s most advanced military with hundreds of US-supplied F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighters — on Turkey’s neighbors Iran and Syria, as well as on Lebanon and Qatar, unnerved Ankara in the last year. They laid bare key vulnerabilities, prompting its push for rapid air power reinforcement to counter any potential threats and not be left exposed, officials say.
A person familiar with the matter said that under a deal it is nearing with Britain on the Typhoons, Turkey would promptly receive 12 of them, albeit used, from previous buyers Qatar and Oman to meet its immediate needs, with 28 new jets coming in future years.
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In July, Ankara and London signed a preliminary purchase deal approved by Eurofighter consortium members Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, represented by Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, shakes hands with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 25, 2025. (Kin Cheung/AP)
Last week, Erdogan visited Qatar and Oman in part to discuss the purchase plan.
Erdogan’s office said he and Starmer would also hold talks on bilateral ties and regional and global issues.
Acquiring the advanced F-35s has proven trickier for Ankara, which has been barred from buying them since 2020, when Washington slapped it with sanctions over its purchase of Russian S-400 air defenses, which violated US prohibitions on such weapons deals.
Erdogan failed to make headway on the issue at a White House meeting with US President Donald Trump last month. But Turkey still aims to capitalize on the two leaders’ good personal ties and Erdogan’s help in convincing the Palestinian terror group Hamas to sign Trump’s Gaza ceasefire agreement, to eventually reach a deal. The ceasefire halted the war triggered on October 7, 2023, by the Hamas-led invasion and massacres in southern Israel.
Turkey’s possession of the S-400s remains the main obstacle to purchasing F-35s, but Ankara and Washington have publicly stated a desire to overcome this, saying the allies have the political will to do so.
Frustrated by past hot-cold ties with the West and some arms embargoes, Turkey has developed its own KAAN stealth fighter. Yet officials acknowledge it will take years before it replaces the F-16s that form the backbone of its air force.
Jet upgrades are part of a broader effort to strengthen layered air defenses that also includes Turkey’s domestic “Steel Dome” project and an expansion of long-range missile coverage.
Israeli F-35 fighter jets return to the Nevatim Airbase after carrying out an airstrike in Yemen, July 20, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Israel’s fleet of F-35s has faced complications from Britain. In June, a court rejected a Palestinian human rights group’s legal challenge to the British government’s decision to supply Israel with parts for F-35 fighter jets and other military equipment.
The Al-Haq group — blacklisted in Israel as a terror group — alleged that the UK broke domestic and international law and was complicit in atrocities against Palestinians by allowing essential components for the warplanes to be supplied to Israel.
The British government said the parts were distributed to a collaboration involving the US and six other partners to produce the jets.
Two UK High Court judges ruled that the issue was one of national security because the parts were considered vital to the defense collaboration and the UK’s security and international peace. They said it wasn’t up to the courts to tell the government to withdraw from the group because of the possibility that the parts would be supplied to Israel and used to allegedly violate international humanitarian law in Gaza.
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