Turkey and Rolls-Royce Will Soon Finalize the TF-X Engine Deal

ANKARA (Turkey), May 29, 2018, Author: Bm News Team, Photo: Adam Berry/Getty Images

The Defence Procurement Agency of Turkey and Rolls-Royce will soon finalize the TF-X engine deal. In connection with that a letter of intent was signed by Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) chief Ismail Demir and British Minister for Defence Procurement Guto Bebb along the sidelines of the visit of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Britain on 15th May, reported Defense News.

The deadline for finalization of the negotiations set in the letter of intent is 31st July 2018. All differences concerning the deal shall be sort out until then.

A senior Turkish procurement official familiar with the project explained, “There are several outstanding issues … we must resolve before moving onto another stage. We will seek to find common ground on disputed issues like export licenses, restrictions, technology transfers and know-how, local work share, intellectual property rights, and development costs.”

It is planned the engine for the TF-X fighter jet in the making to be developed and co-produced in Turkey.

The choice of the engine is always of crucial importance for an aircraft. A Turkish aerospace official underlined, “The choice of engine will shape up various other parameters in the next stages of the program.”

The intention of the Turkish country is the TF-X fighter to be built with the engineering assistance from BAE Systems of the United Kingdom and for that purpose, in January 2017, it was signed an agreement at the amount of more than £100 million.