Royal Air Force (RAF) Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike WIGSTON, has recently visited Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (TUSAŞ) facilities.
The statement given by Turkish Aerospace relating to the visit of Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike WIGSTON is as follows: “We were pleased to have Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Mike WIGSTON and his delegation, who visited our company and examined our domestic and national projects.”
Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike WIGSTON said “BAE Systems integrated with Turkish Aerospace is building Turkey’s next generation combat aircraft. A national project the nation can be proud of, symbolic of the strength of the UK and Turkey bilateral relationship.” about the visit.
National Combat Aircraft and UK
Within the scope of National Combat Aircraft (MMU) project that aims to design and produce modern aircraft within domestic capabilities, and replace the F-16 Fighting Falcons that are in Turkish Air Force Command inventory and are planned to be unmounted gradually in 2030s, the main contract between Turkish Presidency of Defense Industries and Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. has been signed on 05.08.2016.
Following the main agreement signed, the Heads of Agreement between Turkish Aerospace and British BAE Systems was signed on January 28, 2017, the Memorandum of the Agreement on May 10, 2017, and the Cooperation Agreement between Turkish Aerospace and BAE Systems on August 25, 2017.
During IDEF 2019, Turkish Aerospace CEO Prof. Dr. Temel KOTİL spoke to SavunmaSanayiST.com – Turkish website – and announced that 100 or so engineers from BAE Systems work in Turkey for the project as of May 2019.
Developed within the scope of the National Combat Aircraft (NCA) Project, the TF-X (Turkish Fighter – X) fighter plane is planned to exit the hangar in 2023, to have its first flight in 2026, to be delivered to the Turkish Air Force in 2029, and to reach full capacity flight capability in the 2030s.
Source: TurkishDefenceNews.com