The Biden admin notified Congress of its intent to provide Turkey with upgrades for its F-16 fleet.
The proposed $259 million sale will not give Ankara new jets but rather will provide things like software and hardware upgrades to modernize the ones Turkey already has.
Among the deal would be upgrades to Operational Flight Program (OFP) avionics with the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (AGCAS) capability and other hardware modifications to enable integration of the Multifunctional Information Distribution System Block Upgrade II (MIDS BU II).
A State Department official said the Biden administration notified Congress of its approval of the sale on Monday.
“Turkey is a longstanding and valued NATO Ally,” the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The Biden Administration supports Turkey’s efforts to bring the avionics of its F-16 fleet up to standard,” the official said, adding that this sale would enhance Turkey’s interoperability with NATO by updating communications and also provide upgrades to improve safety measures such as a ground collision avoidance system.
