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21:35 01.04.2019
Last week, Senator James Lankford's office stated that a bipartisan group of US senators introduced legislation to block the transfer of F-35 aircraft to Turkey over its decision to buy Russian S-400 air defence systems.
Washington has halted its delivery of F-35 fighter jet parts to Ankara due to plans of the latter to purchase Russian S-400 air defence systems, Reuters reported on Monday citing its sources who wanted to remain anonymous.
This comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided not to abandon plans to buy the Russian system despite US claims that the S-400s may compromise the security of their F-35s. Commenting on the planned purchase, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last Friday that Ankara purchases Russia's S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems for its own needs and there will be no reselling. According to the Turkish official, Ankara will receive the military equipment from Moscow in July.
People wander around a life-size model of US planemaker Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II 5th generation fighter plane during the Farnborough aerospace show, in Farnborough, England
Last month, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar noted that Ankara expects the delivery of F-35 fighter jets in November despite US criticism of Turkey's decision to buy Russian S-400s.
Turkey is planning to purchase 100 F-35 fighter jets from the United States, with its pilots being trained at the Luke Air Force Base in the US state of Arizona.
In December 2017, Russia and Turkey signed a loan agreement for the supply of S-400s.
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