{"id":40737,"date":"2019-11-13T20:41:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T20:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/11\/13\/f-35-program-on-track-to-replace-turkey-pentagon-officials-say\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:21:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:21:26","slug":"f-35-program-on-track-to-replace-turkey-pentagon-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/11\/13\/f-35-program-on-track-to-replace-turkey-pentagon-officials-say\/","title":{"rendered":"F-35 program on track to replace Turkey, say Pentagon officials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 Since removing Turkey from the multinational F-35 program<\/a> over its purchase of a Russian air defense system, the U.S. has found alternate suppliers for all but a dozen components Turkey is producing for the Lockheed Martin-made fighter jet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As U.S. President Donald Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Wednesday, the Pentagon\u2019s F-35 program executive testified in Congress that he expects Turkey will be phased out on schedule, by March 2020<\/a>. Lockheed and Pratt & Whitney, he said, have \u201cspectacular progress\u201d finding alternate suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe began just over a year ago, very quietly but deliberately, taking actions to find alternate sources for all of those parts,\u201d said the program executive, Lt. Gen. Eric Fick. \u201cWe are not quite there yet, so we have, on the airframe side, 11 components we have to mitigate to be at full-rate production … and on the engines, there\u2019s one: integrated bladed rotors, IBR\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t