Trump Pushes F‑35 Sale to Turkey Amid NATO Security Concerns

U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly prepared to offer Turkey a package that includes F‑35 fighter jets and engines for its indigenous KAAN aircraft, despite Turkey’s continued operation of the Russian S‑400 air‑defence system. The Wall Street Journal warned that such a sale could “leak sensitive U.S. technology to Russia and, by extension, to China,” threatening the integrity of NATO’s air‑defence architecture.

The proposal comes days before a NATO summit in Turkey, where allies are weighing Turkey’s reintegration into the F‑35 program. Critics argue that equipping a NATO member with both U.S. stealth fighters and Russian radar could provide Moscow with valuable data on the F‑35’s capabilities, undermining the alliance’s collective security, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region.