Washington — Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) is blocking a proposed $750 million sale of U.S.-made F-110 jet engines to Turkey, citing Turkey’s continued possession of a Russian S-400 air-defense system, according to people familiar with the matter. The sale, which would supply engines for Turkey’s domestically developed KAAN fighter jet, has created a standoff between the Trump administration and a key Democratic lawmaker on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The administration asked congressional leaders to approve the sale, U.S. officials said. Under long-standing procedure, the chair and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee must sign off before the executive branch can proceed with a major foreign arms sale. A person familiar with the matter said the administration could press ahead despite the hold but that doing so would be unusual.
Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 system in 2017 prompted the U.S. to impose sanctions on Turkey’s defense-industry agency and expel Turkey from the F-35 jet fighter program. U.S. officials have said they are concerned the S-400, one of Russia’s most advanced air-defense systems, could gather data about the F-35’s radar signature and transmit it to Moscow. Congress passed a law in 2020 that explicitly bars the U.S. from allowing Turkey back into the F-35 program until Turkey removes all S-400 systems and commits to never acquire them or other compromising Russian systems.
Erdogan has repeatedly urged the U.S. to readmit Turkey to the F-35 program, lift the sanctions, and restore a full defense partnership. Trump last year said he was considering the request. The administration’s push to sell the F-110 engines is viewed by congressional officials as an effort to overcome opposition to the F-35 sale, according to people familiar with the matter.
The disagreement comes as President Trump is expected to visit Ankara in July for a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It illustrates the limits of a thaw in Turkish-American ties driven by a warm personal relationship between Trump and Erdogan, analysts said.
“That doesn’t necessarily always have the full trickle-down effect,” said Alper Coskun, a former high-ranking Turkish diplomat now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s more of a structural problem.”
Turkey commands the second-largest army in NATO and plays an increasingly important security role amid Trump’s friction with Europe. Turkish leaders helped broker ceasefire rounds in the Iran war, and NATO air defenses detected and shot down Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at Turkey, including at a nuclear-armed U.S.-Turkish military base.
Proponents of the engine sale say the congressional hold shows how negative views of Erdogan among some lawmakers are complicating other aspects of the security partnership. “We don’t ever talk about F-110 sales to, like, Denmark. It’s not controversial,” said Aaron Stein, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
The sale is structured as a direct commercial sale in which U.S. companies can sell military equipment overseas with government permission, according to people familiar with the deal. Turkey already uses F-110 engines in its F-16 fleet, the second largest in the world after the U.S. military’s, and produces components for the engines domestically under a licensing program.
Tom Barrack, the Trump-appointed U.S. ambassador to Turkey who also plays a large role in shaping the administration’s approach to the Middle East, has been a proponent of breaking the impasse, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A State Department spokesman declined to comment. The White House and the Turkish Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.