LMT - Biden administration notifies Congress of $259M sale of F-16 gear to Turkey

2023-04-17 16:51:11 ET

The Biden administration on Monday notified Congress about a planned sale of aviation software upgrades to Turkey for the country's fleet of F-16 fighter jets. The deal is valued as much as $259 million, Reuters reported.

President Biden in June had said the United States needed to sell F-16s to Turkey and modernize them. He made the remarks at a news conference after a summit meeting among leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“There’s no quid pro quo with that, it’s just that we should sell. But I need congressional approval to be able to do that, and I think we can get that,” Biden said at the time.

The sale was seen by officials from the United States and Turkey as a way to align their interests. Turkey dropped its objection to expanding NATO with the addition of Sweden and Finland, a countermeasure to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In 2021, Turkey requested the new F-16s from the United States as the countries worked to repair relationships on defense. The U.S. government imposed sanctions on Turkey after its 2017 purchase of an air-defense system made by Russia.

The United States also expelled Turkey from the F-35 fighter program because of concerns that Russia might use the air-defense system to hack the fighter plane’s systems.

There are approximately 3,000 F-16s operating in 25 countries throughout the world, according to data from defense contractor Lockheed Martin (NYSE: NYSE: LMT ). The company had a backlog of 127 Block 70/72 F-16s - as an upgrade for the fighter jet is called - for six countries as of mid-March.

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