A model of the KAAN fighter jet on display at Turkish Aerospace Industries stand at IDEX 2025. (Agnes Helou / Breaking Defense)
BEIRUT — The head of Turkish Aerospace (TA), the firm building Ankara’s next-generation KAAN fighter aircraft, says the US has cleared for export the General Electric-made F110 engines destined to initially power the plane, overcoming a geopolitical roadblock.
“The F110 engine, we have 10 of them already for our prototypes. For the serial production of KAAN, we are buying 80 engines. The export license was approved or went through the Congress on July 9,” Mehmet Demiroglu told reporters in a press briefing at the Farnborough Airshow outside London.
“The rest is standard procedures. So we can say yes, we have the export license for the engine. We will work with GE folks to get the engines in time, and since it is for the serial production, which is at least two and a half years away, we will have no issue receiving those engines in time to support our serial production for [the] Turkish Air Force,” he said.
Turkish reports had previously noted that July 9 was the deadline for a review period in which American lawmakers could step into halt the export of the engines and, after it passed seemingly without objection, the path should be clear. Reuters first reported in late June that the Trump administration planned to greenlight the engine sale, despite public criticism from the likes of Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
