Starmer Sells Turkey Fighter Jets.

On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met with the Turkish leader, Erdogan. The deal was signed by both leaders to sell Eurofighters, known as Typhoons, to Turkey. This deal will be a massive boost for defence workers at BAE Systems in the Northwest of England. 20 of the planes will be sold to Turkey, and the deal will cost Turkey £8 billion. This agreement deepens the ties between the UK and Turkey, two prominent NATO members. Turkey has the largest military in NATO apart from the US.

What will the sale of these fighter jets do for Turkey? Turkey will have an aircraft that its rivals, like Israel, will be taking notice of. Israel has launched many massive airstrikes against its foes in the Middle East this year. A potential flashpoint between Israel and Turkey could be in Syria, where both Middle Eastern nations have a presence. Turkey will be taking a lesson from Israel's 12-day war with Iran. Iran lost many of its top brass, and its much-touted air defence was taken out by the Israeli air force. Iran's air force was scarce in the air as many of its fighters are out of date. Israeli plans like the US-supplied F-35 were able to roam Iran's airspace at will. Iran knows, like Turkey, that it needs state-of-the-art fighter jets to take on jets like Israel's F-35s. Iran is supposed to be receiving advanced fighters from Russia and China, but when is unknown. The only thing Iran had going for it was its missiles that inflicted injuries, deaths, and other destruction in Israel.

Turkey will have learnt from Iran's experience of fighting Israel. Turkey will want advanced air defence systems and the jets to boot, if war should ever break out between Israel and Turkey. I would imagine as a member of NATO, Turkey will already have advanced multilayered air defences. It already has a formidable air force, and these Typhoons will certainly enhance all of that. The caveat, though, is that if Turkey does go to war with Israel, it could drag in the rest of NATO. The mantra of NATO is "If one member is attacked, all NATO members come to its aid". That would be a conundrum if such a thing took place.

Germany, as a member of NATO, banned the sale of Typhoons to Turkey. Whether this was not to antagonise Israel is not known. Germany's decision was respected by all other NATO members. However, Germany has lifted the ban on selling Typhoons to Turkey. Hence, the UK and other NATO members are now free to sell these jets to Erdogan. NATO has come to see Turkey as a bulwark against Russia on its eastern flank. Perhaps that is why Germany has lifted the ban, given the continuing threat from Russia. Russia has been testing NATO's defences recently with drones, perhaps even more reason to sell aircraft to Turkey.

The Eurofighter or Typhoon is constructed by Britain, Germany, Spain, and Italy. If, say, a Turkish Typhoon took on an Israeli F-35 and the F-35 is beyond visual range, the F-35 will win every time. If the Typhoon has the F-35 within visual range, it would be the Typhoon that comes out on top. So both planes have their strengths and weaknesses. Of course, it also depends on circumstances. The above is a ChatGPT guess taking into account both planes' advantages and disadvantages. However, while ChatGPT's assessment may be correct, can an AI or even a human expert truly say what would happen if they met in combat?

The fact of a Typhoon even meeting an F-35 in combat is absurd in one sense. The Typhoon and the F-35 represent fighter jets from Europe and the USA. Two Allies and members of NATO. So if Israel and Turkey did come to blows, you'd find two aircraft: the Typhoon from Europe and the F-35 from the US clashing. How ironic that would be, but if it happened, it wouldn't surprise me, given how volatile the Middle East is right now.

However, I think NATO would nip any conflict between Israel and Turkey in the bud before it could even start. Promising both nations this and that to stop them from going to war.

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