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Türkiye and the United Kingdom are continuing work on the procurement of Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets as part of efforts to modernize the Turkish Air Force (TurAF), the Turkish National Defense Ministry said Monday.
A team of experts from the ministry, the Air Force Command's Aircraft Maintenance Working Group and the General Directorate of Military Factories inspected aircraft maintenance facilities at the Royal Air Force's (RAF) Coningsby Air Base in the U.K. from Sept. 15-17, the ministry said on X.
"The work on the Eurofighter Typhoon procurement project being carried out with the United Kingdom continues as part of the modernization efforts of our Air Force," the ministry said.
The ministry described the visit as a "strategic" step toward planning maintenance and sustainment processes, ensuring compatibility of technical infrastructure, and strengthening bilateral cooperation.
"This strategic visit was an important step toward planning maintenance-sustainment processes, technical infrastructure compatibility and strengthening joint cooperation," the ministry said.
Türkiye ordered 20 Eurofighter Typhoon jets in October 2025, with British defense contractor BAE Systems confirming in its first-half 2026 financial results that production had begun in the U.K. and across Eurofighter partner nations, with first delivery scheduled for 2030.
The jets will arrive in stages: six in 2030, eight in 2031 and the final six in 2032, built to the Tranche 4 configuration and expected to include air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions, mission pods and the Meteor beyond-visual-range missile, according to Turkish National Defense Minister Yasar Guler.
Türkiye and the U.K. signed a separate training, support equipment and services contract worth roughly £2.5 billion ($3.36 billion) in March 2026, building on the original Typhoon jet and weapons package agreed in 2025.
Under that contract, BAE Systems will supply spare parts and repairs and provide training and technical support expected to run for the first three years after the jets enter service, covering training for pilots, engineers and maintenance crews.
Turkish personnel began heading to the U.K. for training starting in August 2026, with the Royal Air Force training 10 Turkish instructor pilots and roughly 100 maintenance instructors, with additional pilots and maintenance staff to follow in subsequent years.
Flight training for Turkish Eurofighter pilots began shortly after their arrival in the U.K.
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Separately, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a security and defense partnership during the NATO summit hosted in Ankara.
Türkiye is also in discussions to acquire secondhand Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 4 jets from Qatar and Oman to bridge its combat aircraft needs until the new aircraft arrive. Qatar is set to supply 12 jets under that arrangement, though the timeline has reportedly slipped somewhat amid the war between Iran and the U.S. and Israel.
Separately, Türkiye's overall Eurofighter fleet plan has been revised to reach 56 jets within four years, with the aircraft to be fielded in the Tranche 4+ configuration equipped with the ECRS Mk 0 AESA radar.
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