The US State Department has approved upgrades worth $259 million for the Turkish F-16 fleet.
The proposed upgrades include “software upgrades of the Operational Flight Program avionics with the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency explained.
They also include “hardware modifications to enable integration of the Multifunctional Information Distribution System Block Upgrade II.”
Approval Follows Finland’s NATO Accession
The upgrades will help improve the aircraft’s safety and interoperability with NATO, the Pentagon agency stated.
The approval follows Ankara approving Finland’s accession to NATO.
However, Ankara’s larger request for 40 F-16 aircraft from the US has been in limbo since 2021, when Washington expelled the country from the F-35 program over its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system.
Turkey’s F-16 Upgrade Program
Turkey has 43 F-16 Block 30 C and D models, 117 Block 40, and 110 Block 50 aircraft.
The country has been upgrading 35 Block 30 aircraft under the OZGUR project, retrofitting the aircraft with a suite of locally-developed avionics and systems, according to Aviation Online.
The modernization includes a new “mission computer, a system interface unit, new cockpit color displays, hydraulic fuel gauge, engine display screen, new national identification friend/foe system, new radar warning receivers, and an inertial navigation system,” the outlet wrote.
The upgrades will increase the aircraft’s flight hours from 8,000 hours to 12,000 hours.
Meanwhile, a local defense firm developed an active electronically scanned array radar last year. The radar will be retrofitted onto the F-16 and Akinci drone.