Turkey’s upcoming national combat aircraft, also known as the TAI TF-X, will be unveiled in 2023, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday.
Turkey will take the fifth-generation aircraft out of the hangar that year, Turkey’s centennial, and “show it to the whole world,” Erdoğan said, Hurriyet Daily News reported on Friday.
The Turkish president also claimed that the TF-X’s first flight will be in 2025, and the twin-engine, all-weather stealth fighter will join the Turkish Air Force in 2029.
He made the remarks during the opening ceremony of the National Fighter Jet Production Facility,
In his remarks, Erdoğan also said that Turkey is in the top 10 countries that are capable of designing and building warships and in the top three countries that can build advanced drones.
Turkey was able to do so despite what he called “hidden and open embargoes it has been exposed to, and the sabotage carried out from inside and outside.”
Erdoğan said that there are presently 752 defence projects, a huge increase from the mere 62 there were 20 years ago.
“In a similar vein, the budget of the defence industry projects has increased from $5.5 billion to $75 billion; the annual turnover of the sector from $1 billion to $10 billion; and our exports from $248 billion to $3.224 billion,” he said.
“We have become a country that meets the needs of not only itself but also friendly and allied countries in the land and sea vehicles.”
Ahval