{"id":44982,"date":"2019-07-22T13:33:15","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T13:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/22\/will-us-f-35s-ever-operate-from-turkey-the-us-air-forces-top-general-wont-rule-it-out\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:37:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:37:59","slug":"will-us-f-35s-ever-operate-from-turkey-the-us-air-forces-top-general-wont-rule-it-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/a-modern-nato\/2019\/07\/22\/will-us-f-35s-ever-operate-from-turkey-the-us-air-forces-top-general-wont-rule-it-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Will US F-35s ever operate from Turkey? The US Air Force\u2019s top general won\u2019t rule it out."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN \u2014 The U.S. Air Force\u2019s top general isn\u2019t ready to say that the service\u2019s stealthy F-35s will never fly out of its air base in Turkey, despite an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2019\/07\/16\/trump-cuts-off-f-35-for-turkey-and-lawmakers-say-sanctions-are-coming\/\" target=_blank>ongoing feud between Washington and Ankara<\/a> about Turkey\u2019s purchase of a Russian air defense system, he said in an exclusive July 20 interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, the United States announced that Turkey is to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/07\/17\/turkey-officially-kicked-out-of-f-35-program\/\" target=_blank>expelled<\/a> from the F-35 program after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2019\/07\/12\/turkey-has-the-s-400-the-trump-administration-is-silent\/\" target=_blank>Russia delivered the first shipment of the S-400<\/a>, a system that networks together radar, missiles, and command and control designed to find and track enemy aircraft and shoot them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein said the service has not imposed restrictions that would prohibit stealth aircraft like the F-35 from operating from Incirlik Air Base, which is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/04\/30\/us-air-force-ties-to-greece-may-grow-as-relations-with-turkey-sour\/\" target=_blank>a key launching point for U.S. air assets<\/a> in southern Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat I would say is we would do an assessment of the threat; and based on the intelligence assessment of the threat, we would make a decision based on everything in the world when we fly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t want to potentially tie, right now, a blanket operational assessment with a technological assessment,\u201d he said. \u201c \u2018Does this mean you\u2019re never going to fly F-35s in Turkey?\u2019 I can\u2019t commit that because I don\u2019t have an assessment of the threat and where it is in real time. And I\u2019m going to make a decision in real time, as I do every other time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. defense officials had warned for more than a year that Turkey would not be allowed to obtain its F-35 jets unless it canceled its plans to buy the S-400. In June, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Ellen Lord stated that Turkish officials involved in the F-35 program \u2014 including pilots, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/paris-air-show\/2019\/06\/11\/heres-why-training-for-turkish-f-35-maintainers-will-proceed-despite-pause-for-turkeys-student-pilots\/\" target=\"_blank\">maintainers <\/a>and officials based at the program office in Washington \u2014 would be forced to return to Turkey by July 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2019\/06\/07\/turkish-suppliers-to-be-eliminated-from-f-35-program-in-2020\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-638257966.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Turkish suppliers to be eliminated from F-35 program in 2020<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Most of the work would go toward U.S. firms &#8230; at least at first.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Turkey moved forward with the acquisition, accepting the first shipment of the system on July 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTurkey\u2019s decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible,\u201d said a White House statement announcing the decision to cast Turkey from the program. \u201cThe F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turkey planned to buy 100 F-35As, the conventional-takeoff-and-landing model also flown by the U.S. Air Force and most international F-35 operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pentagon will pay $500-$600 million in nonrecurring engineering costs to relocate production of certain components from Turkey to other suppliers, Lord said last week. Meanwhile, the department is still grappling with how best to deal with Turkey\u2019s extant F-35s currently used for pilot training at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, as well <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/06\/13\/there-are-turkish-jets-in-the-pentagons-latest-f-35-deal-heres-why-thats-not-a-big-problem\/\" target=_blank>as the jets the country has on order<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Goldfein, who spent last week visiting air bases in Europe and attending meetings with foreign air chiefs, said his counterparts were aligned with the U.S. decision to remove Turkey from the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s pretty good solidarity among the F-35 users that we\u2019re on the right path. There\u2019s also pretty good solidarity that there\u2019s still hope that we\u2019re going to somehow work our way through this, with Turkey as a valuable ally \u2014 that we\u2019ll work to some kind of a solution on the back end of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/industry\/2019\/07\/18\/russia-to-turkey-while-youre-at-it-would-you-like-some-jets\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/russia-syria-2917.jpg_06b4f2.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Russia to Turkey: While you\u2019re at it, would you like some jets?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Russia is prepared to sell Turkey some of its most advanced fighter jets, according to the head of Rostec.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Goldfein acknowledged that it is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2019\/04\/05\/heres-how-f-35-technology-would-be-compromised-if-turkey-also-had-the-s-400-anti-aircraft-system\/\" target=_blank>incompatible for, in one country, the F-35 and the S-400 to coexist<\/a>,\u201d he added that the Air Force needs to retain its operational flexibility and not rule out any options regarding how it may deploy its forces in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur military-to-military relationships remain as strong as ever, and we need to keep them as strong as ever as we allow the diplomatic discussion to continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read the full exchange with Goldfein here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>I know the final decision to push Turkey from the F-35 was a political decision and not your responsibility, but is the U.S. Air Force considering imposing restrictions on the types of aircraft that it would operate from Incirlik?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re not, because any kinds of restrictions, that\u2019s completely in the policy lane. Our military-to-military relationships remain as strong as ever, and we need to keep them as strong as ever as we allow the diplomatic discussion to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So right now, for instance at Luke Air Force base, we\u2019re now transitioning Turkish pilots, maintainers and their families out of the program. I\u2019ve talked to my commander a few times just to make sure \u2014 these are our teammates, and we treat them with dignity and respect. This is not on them. This is not on their families. And we all know transitioning in a PCS [permanent change of station] move is hard enough. Let\u2019s make sure that we\u2019re treating them like our teammates, trusted teammates. So at the mil-to-mil levels, no change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Aren\u2019t there technical risks, sensitives or security risks if you were to use the F-35 in an airspace where the S-400 is operated?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sure. That\u2019s what\u2019s behind the policy. It\u2019s sort of simplistic, but the F-35 is a flying computer. It\u2019s got the computing capacity that you read about and that\u2019s what gives it its fusion technology. The S-400 is a computer, and it\u2019s a rather advanced computer. At the end of the day, you don\u2019t hook up adversarial computers. If you want to boil it down to basics, that\u2019s what this is all about. They are incompatible systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>But with that in mind, why wouldn\u2019t those conditions cause the U.S. Air Force to declare it will no longer operate or train from Incirlik? <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We assess threats globally. We\u2019ve got F-35s you saw at Spangdahlem [Air Base, Germany]. They\u2019re going to Estonia. They\u2019re going to different places. We do an assessment of the threat environment every time we operate; and by the way, we\u2019re pretty good at it. We did it with the F-22 and we did it back when I was flying the F-117.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>But none of those countries are using a Russian air defense system.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No, they don\u2019t have to. All they [Russia] have to do is have one on the border or in proximity, right? We fly into an air show with the F-35, the F-22, and we have a pretty good sense of what\u2019s going to be looking at it before it flies up here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Sure, but that\u2019s different than the Turks potentially having Russians in country to service the S-400 air defense system and also potentially having access to the F-35. So why no restrictions? Do you have concerns about that?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What you just described is why its incompatible for, in one country, the F-35 and the S-400 to coexist. That\u2019s the reason. You don\u2019t hook a computer to an [adversary] computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>So why not announce restrictions to flight operations at Incirlik? <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We don\u2019t have F-35s there. And I wouldn\u2019t announce restrictions because if it\u2019s incompatible, I\u2019m not going to fly there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>So it\u2019s fair to say the U.S. Air Force will not fly F-35s from Incirlik if Turkey continues to acquire the S-400, correct?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think that\u2019s too bold a statement. What I would say is we would do an assessment of the threat; and based on the intelligence assessment of the threat, we would make a decision based on everything in the world when we fly. And trust me when I tell you that before we were flying the F-35 in the exercises at Spangdahlem, we have a very good sense of exactly where it\u2019s flying, what the threat is, and how and when we operate. Turkey will be no different. I wouldn\u2019t do anything different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s what I don\u2019t want to do: I don\u2019t want to potentially tie, right now, a blanket operational assessment with a technological assessment. I think you can confuse readers, right? Because they will start conflating: \u201cOK, you made a decision technically about collocating in one country the F-35 and S-400.\u201d And the answer to that is: true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now let\u2019s play this out. \u201cDoes this mean you\u2019re never going to fly F-35s in Turkey?\u201d I can\u2019t commit that because I don\u2019t have an assessment of the threat and where it is in real time. And I\u2019m going to make a decision in real time, as I do every other time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>So you want to leave the decision space open so that you can operate there in the future if you need to.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Have any American allies and partners raised concerns about this situation?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What I\u2019ve heard overall is that we\u2019re standing firm together. Part of the message is that this is not just a U.S.-Turkey discussion, this is an F-35 users group discussion because we\u2019ve got to protect this technology not just for the U.S. but for all who invest in the F-35 because we all share the secrets we have to protect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So there\u2019s pretty good solidarity among the F-35 users that we\u2019re on the right path. There\u2019s also pretty good solidarity that there\u2019s still hope that we\u2019re going to somehow work our way through this, with Turkey as a valuable ally. That we\u2019ll work to some kind of a solution on the back end of this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein says the military relationship between the U.S. Air Force and its Turkish counterpart remains strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":104,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[104,7,160,46,11,36,19,30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-44982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-modern-nato","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JHPKQSTUINH4NMAWADOKSKQMJU","arc_canonical_url":"\/smr\/a-modern-nato\/2019\/07\/22\/will-us-f-35s-ever-operate-from-turkey-the-us-air-forces-top-general-wont-rule-it-out\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Will US F-35s ever operate from Turkey? The US Air Force\u2019s top general won\u2019t rule it out. - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein says the military relationship between the U.S. Air Force and its Turkish counterpart remains strong.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will US F-35s ever operate from Turkey? The US Air Force\u2019s top general won\u2019t rule it out.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein says the military relationship between the U.S. Air Force and its Turkish counterpart remains strong.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/a-modern-nato\/2019\/07\/22\/will-us-f-35s-ever-operate-from-turkey-the-us-air-forces-top-general-wont-rule-it-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-22T13:33:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T23:37:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Valerie Insinna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Valerie Insinna\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/smr\\\/a-modern-nato\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/22\\\/will-us-f-35s-ever-operate-from-turkey-the-us-air-forces-top-general-wont-rule-it-out\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/smr\\\/a-modern-nato\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/22\\\/will-us-f-35s-ever-operate-from-turkey-the-us-air-forces-top-general-wont-rule-it-out\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Will US F-35s ever operate from Turkey? 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