The Pentagon announced that Turkish companies will continue until the end of the year 2022 the process of producing some parts of the F-35 fighter after they previously said that the work of these companies will end at the end of this year.
The ministry's spokeswoman, Jessica Maxwell, said in her statements that Turkish companies will continue between now and the end of the year 2022 the production of 139 parts of the fighter.
"Our industrial partners will continue to implement their ongoing contracts, and the F-35 وبرنامج aircraft program tries to stay away from the termination of contracts due to the greater cost and harm to work," she added.
It also clarified that the joint program for the production of the fighter continues at the same time to seek alternatives, and that it continues to implement its plans in this regard.
It should be noted that Turkey is one of the partner countries in the project of manufacturing the mentioned fighter, and it paid about 900 million dollars in the framework of the project.
Earlier, in July 2019, the United States suspended a partnership with Turkey on the project because it had received Russian S-400 (400-S) missile defense systems that Ankara decided to purchase after its protracted efforts to purchase US air defense systems (Patriot) faltered. .
The United States did not cancel existing contracts with its companies - after the suspension of Turkey's partnership - and allowed those companies to continue the supply process until the end of this year until they find new suppliers, before they extend the period until the end of 2022.
It is noteworthy that the pandemic of the new Corona virus (Covid-19) caused the production process of parts of the fighter to be significantly hindered, and Turkish companies were producing more than a thousand of part of the "F-35".