Turkey and the United States on Jan. 25 signed a memorandum of understanding sealing Ankara’s partnership in the production phase of the U.S-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, but the NATO ally’s defense minister said an additional purchase of the rival European-built Eurofighter still is possible.

Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul and Gordon England, U.S. deputy defense secretary, inked the document during a Pentagon ceremony.

Ankara announced in early December its plans to buy 100 F-35s in a program worth some $11 billion over the next 20 years.

Deliveries are planned to begin in 2014 and, as a stop-gap solution to meet its Air Force’s needs until then, Turkey also has decided to buy 30 new F-16 Block 50 fighters worth $1.65 billion. Lockheed Martin leads the JSF effort and manufactures the F-16.

Until late last year, Lockheed Martin and the Eurofighter consortium had been in a fierce competition to market their products in Turkey. The civilian government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the procurement agency had preferred a mixed purchase of the JSF and the Eurofighter Typhoon.

But the Air Force, whose current fighter fleet is exclusively of U.S. design, opted for an all-American solution, and eventually the military’s position prevailed.

“Under our present budget considerations, we are not buying the Eurofighter. That money goes to the new 30 F-16s,” Gonul said Jan. 25 in Washington. “But next year, the situation may change. It will all depend on the next government’s decision.”

Turkey’s next legislative elections are scheduled for November.

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