The first Turkish Air Force pilots have begun training on the Eurofighter Typhoon in the United Kingdom, more than three years before the first new-build fighters ordered by Turkey are scheduled to arrive.
Two experienced Turkish combat pilots have joined the Royal Air Force’s 29 Squadron at RAF Coningsby, the service’s Typhoon Operational Conversion Unit.
Their conversion course will take up to nine months, followed by another three months of instructor training. After qualifying, the two pilots will remain with the squadron as instructors until Turkey begins receiving its own new Typhoons in 2030.
They are the first group under a program that will train ten Turkish instructor pilots and about 100 maintenance instructors in the UK, creating an initial pool of personnel capable of training additional crews in Turkey.
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Ankara ordered 20 new-build Typhoons in October 2025 under an agreement with the UK covering aircraft, weapons, training and support. The overall program is valued at more than £8 billion (about US$10.7 billion).
BAE Systems has already started production work for the Turkish order. Final assembly will take place at Warton in England, with deliveries beginning in 2030.
A separate £2.6 billion (about US$3.5 billion) training and support agreement signed in March covers spares, support equipment, simulators, electronic warfare capabilities and technical assistance during the initial years of operation.
Turkey also wants used Typhoons before new aircraft arrive
The Turkish Air Force could begin operating the type before 2030 if separate negotiations for secondhand aircraft are completed.
Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said Turkey plans to acquire 12 Typhoons from Qatar and another 12 from Oman, potentially adding 24 used fighters to the 20 new aircraft ordered from the UK.
Those negotiations are separate from the new-build contract and have not yet resulted in confirmed purchases.
The additional fighters would enter a Turkish combat fleet still centered on the F-16 while the country develops its own next-generation fighter.
Turkey was removed from the US-led F-35 program in 2019 after acquiring the Russian S-400 air defense system. Ankara has subsequently sought other ways to modernize its combat aircraft fleet while continuing development of the domestically designed KAAN.
KAAN and Typhoon schedules now overlap
The Eurofighter program will increasingly run in parallel with KAAN rather than simply preceding it.
Turkey signed a contract in May for its first 20 production KAAN Block 10 fighters, with deliveries planned between 2028 and the end of 2030. That schedule means the first domestically produced aircraft are expected before the first new-build Typhoons arrive.
The KAAN program has also moved beyond the original P0 demonstrator, which first flew in February 2024. A more representative P1 prototype began ground testing this year and is expected to join the flight-test campaign, with another prototype also planned to fly.
Initial production aircraft will use General Electric F110 engines. Turkey is developing the indigenous TF35000 engine for later KAAN versions, with integration planned for the Block 30.
By the time the first new Typhoons arrive in 2030, the Turkish Air Force could therefore be operating F-16s, early KAANs and potentially secondhand Typhoons, while simultaneously introducing the newly built Eurofighters.
