The United States is preparing to move forward with a $700 million jet engine sale to Turkey ahead of the NATO summit scheduled for July 7–8 in Ankara, according to sources familiar with the matter, in a move that signals warming defense ties between the two allies.
The development comes as Washington and Ankara appear to be accelerating efforts to resolve longstanding friction points in their bilateral relationship. Turkey’s push to modernize and expand its air force has been a central pillar of those negotiations. Ankara has been seeking engines for its domestically developed fifth-generation fighter, the KAAN, which currently relies on General Electric’s F110 powerplant — an arrangement that underscores Turkey’s continued dependence on American aerospace technology despite years of tensions.
The timing of the announcement is widely seen as deliberate, designed to project momentum in the U.S.-Turkey relationship ahead of the Ankara summit. Turkey is hosting the 36th NATO summit — the alliance’s first in Ankara and only the second ever on Turkish soil — at a moment when Erdoğan’s government has been leveraging its strategic value to extract defense concessions from Washington.
The engine deal is part of a broader picture of accelerating U.S.-Turkey defense engagement that also includes ongoing discussions over F-35 fighter jets, from which Turkey was formally expelled in 2019 following its acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defense system. Erdoğan has signaled openness to returning the S-400 systems to Russia as part of a package that would clear the path for F-35 reintegration.
