The Hill – The U.S. and Turkey are playing a high-stakes game of chicken of Turkey’s plan to buy a missile defense system from Russia.
Turkey is insisting on plans to go forward with the purchase, even as the Trump administration threatens to cut off sales of the American-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Ankara if it does so.
The administration has also threatened to impose sanctions on its NATO ally if it goes through with the Moscow deal. Washington wants Ankara to instead buy the U.S.-developed Patriot air and missile defense system, but talks have yet to yield a concrete agreement.
It’s not clear which side will blink first in a fight that has enormous diplomatic stakes for all three countries, to say nothing of the millions of dollars in potential sales for U.S. defense contractors. Turkey plans to eventually buy at least 100 of the Lockheed Martin-made F-35 Lightning II fighters.
