My Turkish brothers, we all love you very much. I personally would gladly fight and die for Turkey. But some things we are afraid to tell you because we don't want to make you upset. It's still better for you to know this (and more importantly for your government decision makers to know!!!).
1. No country will give you ToT for building your own engines. This kind of thinking is very naive.
2. They will waste your time (like with the RR engine) as much as possible to slow down your projects
3. Building engine is not something you or anyone can do in a short period of time. It will take 10-20 years of development from the zero level you are at. Even then, there is a big chance that you will fail.
4. Don't live in a fantasy land like some nations. Try to develop a realistic understanding of the world around you.
5. If you develop a plane using US engines, remember, you are not South Korea. You are a Muslim state. At the last minute, they may choose to withold the engines on one pretext or another. Then your entire project would look like a bad joke. Yet again. Did not the F-35 teach you that?
6. Learn lessons from past mistakes. Don't just glorify the past. If you cannot learn from the mistakes of past procurement policies, you will keep doing the same mistakes again and again.
7. The engines you can get access to meaningfully (and without ToT) are Russian and Chinese. The sooner you realize this the less painful this will be. Otherwise it will be one humiliation after another (did not your past project experiences teach you this?)
Hope you aren't too upset with what I wrote. Please forgive me if you are.
While I can see that you have good intentions and I thank you for your input, I cant help but point out some inaccuracies in your suggestions and respond to some others. Here we go, point by point:
1- This is categorically false. People will absolutely give you TOT on engine. A lot of countries have done this, including Turkey. TEI wasbuilt on TOT and it received a ton of TOT from the F110 engine, for example. What is true is that people will be extremely hesitant to provide TOT on critical technologies of the engine.
2- no comment.
3- we already know that engine development takes a long time, which is why we are using foreign engines for prototypes and maybe even initial production. But there is no such thing as “failing” in such projects, this is not a lottery where you either win a prize or not. The worst things that can happen to such a project are delays and cost overruns. That may cause public optimist about the project to fade resulting in the abandonment of the project, but again, there is no such thing as “failing”.
4- I dont see how Turkey’s planning could be any more realistic.
5- I think one of the most unrealistic things you can do today is falsely playing the victim. The US doesnt care if you are Korean, Muslim or Venezuelan. If they dont like you they dont like you. This is also the reason why the south koreans decided to develop a vast majority of KFX technologies on their own. Because they saw that the US does not freely provide technology to any “non muslim country” they see. Also like us, they realized that the engine is a difficult issue and that only western engines (US, UK, France) provide a meaningful option for them.
6- No comment.
7- Using Russian engines may be an option if Turkey’s relations with the west collapses completely, but until that point going for a Russian engine is very difficult. China does not have any viable engines that we can use. I think it is time we realized the truth and stopped this sinocentric dream and faced the real life.
Again thank you for your comments.
One last comment:
While you are repeatedly bringing up the issue of F-35s (which hasnt even happened yet), you are conveniently forgetting 60+ years of cooperation:
1- Turkey is the only country other than the US that is allowed to build the F-16s from scratch.
2- The US established the foundation of Turkey’s defence industry with companies such as Turkish Aerospace Industries and Turkish Engine Industries
3- US also helped establish scientific and technological institutions such as middle east technical university (which is one of the top 2-3 schools for the defence industry in Turkey.
4- more examples available upon request
I think before we start teaching the leadership of another country how to run their country we should consider reading up a page or two first.
This is getting ultralong but I promise this is my last comment. Warning against working with The US because they are against muslims and then suggesting working with China who has millions of muslims in internment camp? Seriously? This is an oxymoron