August 2, 2007:
Turkey has
gone ahead and completed negotiations to obtain 30 F-16 Block 50 fighters.
Turkey is also upgrading its older F-16s to something similar to the Block 50
standard. The new fighters will arrive by 2009. The new F-16s will cost about
$60 million each, including support, training and some spare parts. In a few
years, Turkey will have a force of some 200 of the most modern F-16s in
service. Turkey considered holding off on some of these upgrades, because the
F-35 would be arriving soon. But not soon enough, and it was determined that an
up-to-date F-16 force now was a wiser way to go.