Trump’s F‑35 offer and $700M engine deal put NATO unity and Israel’s red lines under pressure
The Trump administration is pushing a $700 million jet engine sale to Türkiye and openly signaling possible F‑35 fighter deliveries, defying long‑standing Israeli opposition and congressional unease. With a NATO summit in Ankara days away, Trump is casting Ankara as a ‘strong’ ally and promising to ‘make Erdogan very happy’—a shift that could redraw power balances from the Black Sea to the eastern Mediterranean.
Türkiye is moving back toward the center of NATO’s military ecosystem as the Trump administration accelerates plans for major fighter jet cooperation that could reshape power balances across the alliance and the Middle East. A pending $700 million sale of U.S.-made engines for Ankara’s indigenous Kaan fighter and fresh signals on reviving F‑35 deliveries are colliding with Israeli concerns and skepticism in Congress, turning the run‑up to the NATO summit in Ankara into a test of how far Washington is willing to lean on Türkiye as a frontline partner.
U.S. officials have advanced a $700 million deal for General Electric F‑110 jet engines to power Türkiye’s Kaan fighter jet program, moving ahead despite objections on Capitol Hill. The administration is using existing authorities to sidestep or minimize congressional holds, according to reporting on the process, in a bid to lock in the sale before alliance leaders gather in Ankara. President Donald Trump, speaking publicly on June 24, also indicated that he is likely to approve long‑sought Turkish requests for the return of F‑35 stealth fighters and related equipment, saying he would “probably do something that’s going to make [President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] very happy.”
Trump described Türkiye as a “strong” NATO member with a “very strong military” and said he would attend the NATO summit “out of respect for President Erdogan.” He acknowledged that some allies question Ankara’s alignment but treated the country as a pivotal ally whose cooperation he wants to reward. At the same time, he brushed aside longstanding Israeli opposition to F‑35 sales to Türkiye, saying he is “probably going to do something” on fighter deliveries despite those concerns.
The human and operational stakes of these moves are less visible than a frontline artillery duel but no less real. For Turkish pilots and engineers, access to modern engines and potentially F‑35 technology could shape a generation of training, doctrine and industry employment. For Israeli commanders and civilians within range of Turkish airbases, even the theoretical prospect of advanced Turkish stealth aircraft alters contingency plans, especially amid already high tension over Iran and Gaza. Greek and Cypriot defense planners, as well as residents of contested airspace over the Aegean, would be living under a denser, more technologically capable Turkish air presence.
Strategically, deeper U.S.-Turkish defense industrial ties would lock Ankara more tightly into Western supply chains at a time when Russia is pushing influence in the Black Sea, Caucasus and the eastern Mediterranean. It would also strengthen Türkiye’s role as a manufacturing and maintenance hub for alliance systems, something incoming NATO Secretary‑General Mark Rutte alluded to when he stressed that some 3,000 Turkish defense companies operate across the alliance, including in the United States. But the same moves could further strain trust with Israel and with members of Congress who remain wary of Türkiye’s dealings with Russia, its domestic human rights record and its leverage over NATO decisions.
The broader pattern around the summit is one of transactional security politics. Trump has repeatedly framed NATO in terms of loyalty and owed favors, lamenting that the United States has 50,000 troops in Germany yet, in his words, gets “no kiss” in return. In contrast, he portrays Erdogan as a friend who he says stayed out of the Iran war at his request, and is signaling that Ankara will be rewarded for that restraint. That approach raises the question of whether major weapons transfers are becoming tools of personalized diplomacy rather than outputs of a steady alliance strategy.
The shareable takeaway is blunt: when fighter sales become a currency of political affection, the balance of air power across entire regions can shift on the strength of one leader’s relationship with another.
Key steps to watch now include whether the administration formally notifies Congress of F‑35 transfers or related components, how legislators respond to the engine sale, and what, if any, assurances are provided to Israel and other regional allies. The tone of the Ankara summit—particularly any public signaling by Erdogan, Trump and Rutte on the Kaan program and F‑35s—will be an early indicator of whether this is a narrow transactional deal or the start of a deeper realignment around Türkiye’s role inside NATO.
Sources
- OSINT