U.S. Issues Licence to Export GE F110 Engines for Turkey’s KAAN Fighter

The U.S. has cleared the export of General Electric (GE) F110 engines that will power serial production of Türkiye's KAAN fighter jet, Turkish Aerospace (TAI) CEO Mehmet Demiroglu announced at the Farnborough International Airshow on Friday.

Demiroglu also confirmed the revival of the CAATSA-stalled T70 helicopter line with Sikorsky, a two-KAAN flight goal by year-end, and the first official Hurkus delivery in August. He also revealed talks with BAE Systems on teaming the Anka-3 stealth drone with the Eurofighter Typhoon.

"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," Demiroglu told reporters at a press briefing 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.

July 9 marked the end of a congressional review period during which U.S. lawmakers could have blocked the export, which passed without objection.

"GE Aerospace is proud of our longstanding partnership with Türkiye and the Turkish Air Force," GE said in a statement, noting its decades powering Türkiye's F-16 fleet and support for the Hurjet and KAAN programs.