U.S. Congress has frozen weapons sales to Turkey for two years

U.S. Congress has for nearly two years frozen weapons sales to Turkey, Defense News reported on Wednesday.

The freeze was initiated by four influential members of Congress, in coordination with one another or individually, in a bid to pressure Turkey to abandon its Russian made S-400 air defence system, the report said.

Turkey took delivery of the Russian S-400s in July 2019, but has yet to activate the system, citing a delay brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Although the country entered a normalization process on June 1st, Ankara has yet to make a statement about the fate of the system.

It is unclear how many potential sales have been held back by the Congressional members, the report said, noting that least two crucial deals are in limbo: "a follow-on contract for F-16 structural upgrades and export licenses for U.S. -made engines that Turkey needs to complete a $1.5 billion sale of attack helicopters to Pakistan."

Turkey’s options to update its ageing air force are limited due to its strained relations with many countries. It will likely be at least another decade until the country can deploy a fifth-generation fighter jet after it was kicked out of the U.S. made F-35 alliance. Turkey’s bid to build a fifth-generation stealth fighter is behind schedule and the warplanes might not even get off the ground within next several years, perhaps before 2030.

The report also highlighted that the United States has not used the tool of freezing arms sales to Turkey since Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in 1970s.

Senate's powerful Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and House Foreign Affairs ranking member Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas are two of the members admitted as part of the team which led the freeze on arms sales to Turkey. The other two members are House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J, the report said.

The other significant sale of the weapons is the helicopter engines. The sale of Turkish-made T129 ATAK helicopter gunships to Pakistan had hit a stumbling block in 2019 because Turkey was unable to acquire the license for the engines.

Turkey and Pakistan signed a $1.5 billion deal for the Turkish-made helicopter gunships on July 13, 2018.

"Because the CTS800 was originally produced in the United States, Turkey cannot sell T129s — or any weapon system containing that engine — without obtaining an export license from the U.S. government,’’ the report said.

"But those licenses are also being held back as a result of the congressional block on arms deals, leaving Tusaş Engine Industries racing to develop a replacement engine for the T129,’’ it added.