May 9, 2014

The second of four AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control System] early warning airplanes that we ordered 10 years ago have arrived. The third will be delivered later this year. Foreigners call these planes early warning craft, but we named it "Peace Eagle." These planes, for which we are paying $1.5 billion, will be in the air 24 hours and be refueled in flight. They will report to Ankara if even a bird flies over our borders. We heard from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the long-stalled general utility helicopter project was finally signed. We will pay $3.5 billion for the first batch of 109 US-made Sikorsky helicopters.

The earlier signed project for T-129 AgustaWestland attack helicopters has a bill for $3 billion. We are also buying Seahawk naval helicopters for $557 million.

The other the day the first “Koca Yusuf” giant transport plane, which foreigners call the Hercules A400M, arrived. Turkey is the second country after France to have one of those planes. We ordered 10 of them for 1.3 billion euros [$1.79 billion].

In a meeting a couple of days ago chaired by the prime minister, the decision was made for F-35 new-generation fighters. We already paid $175 million to join the project. As the planes are produced, we are committed to buy a hundred of them at $160 million each. This year we will get two of them.

The long-range air defense system contract we signed with the Chinese will cost $4 billion. If for any reason we change our minds about the Chinese, Americans are waiting in line.