(November 17, 2019 )GM of SSB, Prof.Dr. Demir: "We are discussing together with Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia about MMU(aka TFX) becoming a joint fighter project within the scope of new generation aircraft needs. (...) we were back again to negotiation process with R&R about new generation engine's technical consultancy. Currently, Trmotor continues to work, but we are trying to accelerate the process further. Prototype aircrafts will fly with US-origin engines."
He also said a few things about the project process. If I sum up briefly: Preparing new generation technologies at the operative level always contain important problems. In this context, the problems experienced by other countries' projects are seen. Our plan is to throw the aircraft's first flight date behind the possible nearest range because it will proceed after completing many critical testing processes which are usually starting with the flight schedule in traditional project management. The plane will roll out from hangar in 2023, but we are considering the range of 2025-2026 for the first flight date , we hope to shorten the IOC stage in this way.
I think, a masterplan is being developing/discussing that will decrease the Russian and US aviation industries hegamony in a vast geography from the Middle East to Asia , possibly with China and some europen technical support. Production planning can be redesigned with a few years of work. However, after freezing final design, the project partnership will either create technological sharing problems or the project will cause additional undesired delays. Therefore, this discussion process should be end (positive or negative), by 2020-2021 interval.