WASHINGTON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The White House confirmed on Wednesday that Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems has led to the termination of Ankara's involvement with the F-35 program.
"Turkey's decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible," the White House said in a statement.
The statement noted the F-35 jets cannot coexist with S-400 systems, arguing its intelligence collection platform would be used to learn about the advanced capabilities of F-35 stealth fighters.
Ankara's acceptance of the S-400 not only has detrimental impacts on Turkish interoperability with the NATO Alliance but also undermines the commitments all NATO Allies made to each other to move away from Russian systems, according to the statement.
