Now that the bottleneck in the 35.000 lbs class and robust national turbofan engine is so obvious, what can Turkey do?
IMO, the lowest possibility is the development of a robust national turbofan engine suitable for 5th generation fighters by 2035.
Perhaps a bit more realistic option would be to use foreign engines (China, Russia or US) suitable for 5th generation fighters. This option is also very unlikely in my opinion.
Another option would be to use the old F110 engines throughout the entire project and completely abandon true 5th generation features. I think Turkey will never consider this option. But it won't be because of the F110 engine.
Because the US congress will do a lot of whimsy even if F110 engines are old technology. And we are tired with the bigoted senators in the US Congress. Sooo tired. Even the senators who support us do this for the bribes they receive through the lobby companies, not because they think we are right! They are corrupt to the core and these are people who don't like us Turks.
As a last resort, it may be considered to completely cancel the TF-X project and build the entire air force structure on drones. I think we're going to go down this road eventually. Because we may not be able to develop robust turbofan engine suitable for 5th generation fighters that can give 35,000 lbs of thrust until 2035, but we can develop 10.000 lbs class robust engines suitable for stealth drones.
