Although the project is purely Turkish, the ministry, led by Margarita Robles, is trying to cover up the plane’s development with apparent collaboration between Spain and Turkiye. The European Union demands that projects of Huget’s size be fully developed in Europe and among European companies to protect the community market. Since this condition is not met in the case of the Turkish fighter, the Ministry of Defense has announced cooperation with the Airbus consortium, through which this fighter will probably be part of a joint Spanish-Turkish project.
However, as ABC learned from military industry sources, Airbus’ actual involvement in the project does not go beyond producing some secondary parts for the airframe. And perhaps now there are 45 aircraft on order and talk of a secondary final assembly line, articulated by a Spanish consortium. Participation could also include the integration of weapons into aircraft during the development of armed versions, which are not even planned at the moment, as well as certain “secondary identification elements” for ships.
In order to disguise the Turkish project as Spanish, a temporary business union was formed between Spain’s Airbus and Turkish industry TAI, forcing them to disguise the project as a national development program, when in fact it was a Turkish development program. In short, to make community authorities believe that: Spain is not left out of Europe’s ‘Made in Europe’ initiative Projects of this scale therefore need to be developed by European companies.
In September 2024, the recently established Defense Industrial Strategy and Innovation Directorate sent a letter of invitation to Airbus Spain. Participating as a “national coordinator” of Turkish initiatives without revealing the content of that “coordination”. Briefly, Airbus was invited to start negotiations with Turkish industry, resulting in it abandoning the preliminary agreement it had already signed with Italian manufacturer Leonardo.
《Joint development》
Minister of Defense Margarita Robles herself was present at the Senate to report on the project and stated verbatim that “the basis of the project is Turkish aircraft,” and then clarified: “We would like to jointly develop an advanced trainer aircraft based on this aircraft.”. According to the minister, this envisaged “joint development” will be based on three fundamental aspects: “an ‘assemble to print’ type activity in the global production of the Hurjet that maximizes the industrial benefits of the program for Spain, the Spanishization (sic) of the aircraft, and the development of the national GBTS (Ground Training System), which I have mentioned many times before, i.e. the Ground Training Support Assistant to complement the training in the aircraft.”
Military officials interviewed by the ABC still do not understand why Moncloa, and in particular the Ministry of Defense, made such a statement. «Chosen shortcuts for acquisition of Turkish aircraft and did not follow normal procurement process We then consider the competition of different options available on the market to follow the various stages of the normal process, such as request for information, request for proposals, and final project contract.
“What is really questionable is that Hyrjet was chosen politically rather than following a competitive process, perhaps because other competitors in the market could provide the Aerospace Forces with a system of greater capacity with less risk.” Also, “better industrial cooperation could have been provided.” Alternatively, perhaps through a competition system that did not exist before, the cost of the fuget could have been reduced, resulting in a benefit for Spanish taxpayers.
PP senator José Antonio Monago himself said in one of his Senate interventions on the project: “They wanted to sell us that this is a national development program, even though in the early stages it is a Turkish program with secondary participation from Spain.” “The aim is to finance this program with a new special modernization program. in violation of enforcement principles in the European environment; “This is because a large part of the budget will be spent outside the European Union, contrary to the content of the country’s own industrial plan, which states that 90 percent must be carried out within European territory,” he argued.
An unofficial document prepared by military experts obtained by this newspaper identifies at least six key points and “structural risks” that apply to the Hurjet program. They are basically: «Over-reliance on a single foreign supplier;the use of non-competitive procedures, causing political and media criticism; Budget pressures due to imbalances between the program’s political and fiscal cycles. Technical delays with integration and certification issues common in aviation. the low participation of domestic industry and small and medium-sized enterprises, and the possibility of changes in strategic priorities as a result of the establishment of new governments or new geopolitical circumstances;
In other words, this airplane project has not yet begun development, and only two of the four prototypes needed have been delivered. “There was an attempt to disguise it as a Spanish development plan, a real Turkish development plan.”.
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