Why Washington dropped Turkey from the F-35 programme
A look back at the decision on 17 July 2019 that followed Ankara's purchase of Russian air-defence systems.
What happened to Turkey's place in the F-35 programme on 17 July 2019? The United States removed the NATO ally from the Joint Strike Fighter programme, following its acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile system.
The decision came five days after Turkey received the first shipment of the S-400 from Russia on 12 July 2019. Ankara had gone ahead with the delivery despite calls from the United States and NATO to cancel the deal.
The removal carried a concrete cost. Turkey had planned to buy 100 F-35 Lightning II jets, and the move ended its participation in the programme under which those aircraft were to be acquired.
A busy week in Kyiv
The same week, attention in Ukraine was on domestic politics. On 11 July 2019 the Verkhovna Rada adopted a new Electoral Code. The two stories were unrelated, but both belonged to a period in which decisions on security and on the rules of public life were being taken in quick succession.
For Turkey, the sequence was short: delivery of the Russian system on 12 July, then exclusion from the fighter programme on 17 July.
