In an interview with Defense News Saturday, US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein refused to say for certain that the Pentagon's F-35s will never operate from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Ankara was recently barred from buying the jet out of fears it would be compromised by the Russian S-400 system the country operates.
Goldfein told Defense News' Valerie Insinna that it was “too bold a statement” for him to declare that F-35s will never fly from Incirlik if Ankara continues to acquire S-400s.
“What I would say is we would do an assessment of the threat; and based on the intelligence assessment of the threat, we would make a decision based on everything in the world when we fly,” Goldfein said.
“I don't want to potentially tie, right now, a blanket operational assessment with a technological assessment,” he said. “‘Does this mean you're never going to fly F-35s in Turkey?' I can't commit that, because I don't have an assessment of the threat and where it is in real time. And I'm going to make a decision in real time, as I do every other time.”
“Turkey's decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible,” a Wednesday statement by the White House about the deal's termination noted. “The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.”
A longtime partner on the F-35, which is…
