Türkiye reportedly plans to buy hundreds of Boeing aircraft, Lockheed jets

Türkiye plans to buy hundreds of Boeing airliners and Lockheed Martin jets, while seeking over $10 billion in local production deals, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The deals are subject to approval by U.S. President Donald Trump, the report added.

Daily Sabah could not immediately confirm the report. Türkiye’s Defense Ministry declined to comment to Bloomberg.

The development comes ahead of a scheduled meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Trump at the White House.

Trump expects to conclude trade and military agreements in the meeting, including the large-scale purchase of Boeing aircraft, a major F-16 deal, and a continuation of the F-35 talks with Türkiye.

Erdoğan confirmed on Monday that he will negotiate the acquisition of F-35 fighter jets during his meeting with Trump.

During an appearance on Fox News’ “Special Report” show, he was asked if he expects to get the jets following his visit to Washington.

“Right now, we are going to negotiate on this again. We expect that the United States will also do what it needs to do both about F-35s and also the issue of F-16s and their production, maintenance, etc.,” Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan last visited Trump at the White House in 2019, and the two leaders have repeatedly hailed a “very good relationship.”

They shared a close personal bond during Trump’s first term, but it was also a period of strained bilateral relations due to disputes over Washington’s ties with the terrorist group YPG in Syria and Ankara’s dealings with Moscow.

Frustrated over the embargoes and failure by the West to provide it with an air defense system, Türkiye went on to purchase the S-400 missile system from Russia in 2019. That saw it being suspended from the multinational F-35 program by the U.S., which also canceled a planned sale of the warplanes to Türkiye.

Washington claimed the Russian system would endanger the fighter jets. Ankara has repeatedly said there is no conflict between the two and proposed a commission to study the issue.

Türkiye subsequently agreed on a deal to purchase F-16 jets.