Turkey to buy two planes in second F-35 shipment

Turkey will likely order a second pair of the jointly-made, next-generation, stealth fighter F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II aircraft, as it did earlier this year following the production of the first two, a senior procurement official said over the weekend as Hurriyet reports. Led by the U.S.-based company, Lockheed Martin, the F-35 consortium also includes companies from Turkey, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Norway and Denmark contributing to the plane\'s production. This year Japan and Israel joined the list of countries seeking to acquire the F-35. To be able to start the delivery of the JSF fighters in the year 2015, Turkey had to specify a figure it would buy as a first batch, in its first Defense Industry Executive Committee on Jan. 5, 2012. Despite an expected figure of six, Turkey initially ordered only two aircraft.