Turkey Pushes for Stored F‑35s as Erdogan Dangles U.S. Defense Deals and Warns on Hormuz War Risk
Ankara is moving to secure the immediate delivery of six U.S.‑stored F‑35s if President Trump lifts the embargo, even as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pitches new naval projects with Washington and cautions against turning the Strait of Hormuz into a war zone. The push shows how Turkey is trying to turn a thaw with the U.S. into hard defense gains while positioning itself as a broker in a widening Gulf crisis.
Turkey is trying to convert a tentative thaw with Washington into concrete hardware and clout, pressing for the release of F‑35 jets that have sat in U.S. storage while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan simultaneously offers expanded defense industrial cooperation and warns against a wider war at the Strait of Hormuz.
Turkish officials say Ankara wants the immediate delivery of six F‑35A fighters originally built for Turkey but withheld after its expulsion from the program over the S‑400 air defense deal with Russia. The push hinges on President Donald Trump formally lifting a long‑standing embargo, a step that would reverse one of the most visible penalties imposed on a NATO ally in recent years.
Speaking about his talks with U.S. counterparts, Erdogan said the sides had discussed new avenues for cooperation in the defense industry, particularly in shipbuilding. He pointed to potential Turkish roles in producing frigates, corvettes and submarines for or alongside the United States, insisting that “Türkiye can do it in its shipyards,” and signaling a desire to shift from buyer to partner status in key naval programs.
The twin tracks – fighters and warships – reflect Ankara’s effort to rebuild leverage within NATO after years of friction over Syria, Russian systems and democratic backsliding. The F‑35s would restore some of the high‑end airpower Ankara expected to field this decade, while joint naval projects could tie Turkish yards, engineers and supply chains into U.S. and allied planning in the Mediterranean and beyond.
At the same time, Erdogan is trying to cast Turkey as a voice of restraint as U.S.–Iran tensions spike. Commenting on the unfolding confrontation around the Strait of Hormuz, he said bluntly that Ankara does not want the chokepoint to become “a theater of war.” For a country that relies heavily on Gulf energy flows and aspires to be a regional mediator, a shooting war that threatens shipping through Hormuz would hit both Turkey’s economy and its diplomatic ambitions.
Erdogan also reiterated the importance of Turkey’s “Blue Homeland” doctrine, describing it as a crucial concept not only at sea but one that Ankara plans to invoke “within our borders and in our territorial waters.” That doctrine, which asserts expansive Turkish maritime rights in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, has unnerved Greece and Cyprus and has been a flashpoint inside NATO. His additional comment that the long‑standing casus belli question with Greece should not burden either public, and that Ankara wants to “sit down, talk and finish it,” offered a softer note but did not resolve fundamental disputes over islands and maritime zones.
For Turkish citizens and businesses, the stakes are practical: F‑35 access and new naval deals could mean jobs in aerospace and shipbuilding, deeper integration into Western supply chains and, indirectly, stronger deterrence in a volatile neighborhood. Conversely, any misstep in managing the Hormuz crisis could drive up energy prices, threaten trade routes and pull Turkey into a confrontation it has little appetite for.
Within NATO, how Washington responds to Ankara’s requests will be read as a signal of where Turkey sits in the alliance’s hierarchy after years of turbulence. Green‑lighting F‑35 deliveries and major shipbuilding partnerships would suggest a strategic decision to lock Turkey more tightly in, betting that interdependence can manage disagreements. Holding back would reinforce perceptions in Ankara that Western partners see Turkey less as a core ally than as a problem to be managed.
The key milestones to watch are any formal U.S. moves to lift the F‑35 embargo, concrete contracts or memoranda on joint shipbuilding, and Turkey’s diplomatic posture if the U.S.–Iran confrontation around Hormuz worsens. Whether Erdogan can cash in his outreach for jets and deals, while keeping Turkey out of a Gulf war, will shape Ankara’s regional role for years.
Sources
- OSINT