Türkiye’s deal to buy Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets from Britain also includes a comprehensive weapons package, including MBDA Meteor air-to-air missiles and Brimstone ground attack missiles, a report said.
The agreement, signed at a ceremony in Ankara on Monday, is worth about 8 billion pounds ($10.7 billion) and covers 20 Eurofighter jets that Türkiye will buy from the United Kingdom.
“The deal includes a comprehensive weapons package, including the MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, advanced short-range air-to-air missile and Brimstone ground-attack missile,” a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
The pact is aimed at deepening bilateral ties between the two NATO allies and bolstering Turkish air defenses.
In addition to the 20 new Typhoons from the U.K., Türkiye said it plans to purchase 12 secondhand jets from Qatar and 12 others from Oman. The jets from Qatar could potentially arrive early next year, Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said on Monday.
The deal comes as Türkiye, which is enjoying its warmest ties with the West in years, seeks to take advantage of the advanced warplanes to make up ground with regional rivals such as Israel, which has unleashed strikes across the Middle East this year.
Europe, meanwhile, has increasingly turned to Türkiye, NATO’s second-largest military and a major exporter of armed drones, to reinforce its eastern flank and potentially backstop any future post-war stabilization force in Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government have said Türkiye would receive the first of the batch of Typhoons in 2030, and that the deal, for which talks began in 2023, included an option to buy more.
Eurofighters are built by a four-nation consortium of the U.K. Germany, Italy and Spain. They are represented by BAE Systems, Airbus and Leonardo.
Türkiye and the U.K. signed a preliminary deal in July for the Eurofighters. The deal followed Germany’s reported decision to lift its longstanding opposition to the sale of the jets to Türkiye.
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