Although the project is purely Turkish, the ministry headed by Margarita Robles tried to hide the development of the aircraft in clear cooperation between Spain and Turkey. The European Union demands that a project the size of the Hüdjet be developed entirely in Europe And between European companies in order to protect the community market. As in the case of the Turkish fighter plane, this condition was not met, as the Ministry of Defense explained an alleged cooperation with the Airbus consortium through which it will participate in the aircraft that is supposed to be a joint Spanish-Turkish project.
However, as ABC has learned from military industry sources, Airbus’s actual participation in the project will not go beyond the production of some secondary parts of the airframe. Perhaps now, with forty-five aircraft ordered, there is talk of a detailed secondary final assembly line by the Spanish consortium. This involvement could also include the integration of weapons into the aircraft when developing the armed version, something that is not even planned at the moment, and some “secondary meta elements” specific to the ship.
To disguise the Turkish project as a Spanish project, the formation of a temporary business union between Airbus in Spain and the Turkish industry TAI forced the project to be passed off as a national development program when in fact it is a Turkish development program. In short, it’s about making societal authorities believe it Spain is not outside the European initiative “Made in Europe” Which requires that projects of this size be developed by European companies.
In September 2024, the recently created Directorate General for Strategy and Innovation in the Defense Industry sent a letter to Airbus Spain inviting them To participate as “national coordinators” for the Turkish initiative without specifying what this “coordination” is. Simply put, Airbus was invited to start negotiations with the Turkish industry thus breaking the initial agreement it had already signed with the Italian company Leonardo.
“Joint development”
The Minister of Defense herself, Margarita Robles, in her appearance before the Senate where she reported on the project, stated verbatim that “the basis of the project is the Turkish aircraft,” and then asserted that “We want to participate in the development of an advanced training aircraft based on this aircraft.”. This supposed “joint development” will be based on three fundamental aspects, according to the Minister: “Activities of the ‘build to print’ type, within the global production of Hürjet, increasing the industrial return of the program for Spain; the Spanishization of the aircraft (sic) and the development that I mentioned many times before of the national GBTS (Ground Training Systems), and ground training support assistants who complete the training in the aircraft.”
Military sources consulted by ABC still do not understand why Moncloa, especially the Ministry of Defence, “It chose a shortcut to award Turkish aircraft and did not follow the normal procurement process Considering the competition of different options available in the market in order to follow the different stages of the normal process, such as: request for information, request for proposals, and the final contract for the project.
“What is really suspicious – say the sources cited above – is that Hürjet was chosen politically, without pursuing competition processes because perhaps other competitors on the market can offer a system with lower risks and greater capability for the Army Air and Space.” Also, “better industrial cooperation could have been provided Or perhaps also through a competition regime that did not happen, Hüdjet’s costs could have been reduced with a consequent benefit to the Spanish taxpayer.
“They want to convince us that it is a national development program, while it is a Turkish program in the initial stage with secondary participation from Spain,” said a senator from the People’s Party, Jose Antonio Monago, in one of his interventions in the Senate about the project. «It aims to finance this program with new special modernization programs, Violation of the principle of implementation in the European environment, Because a large part of the budget will go outside the European Union, which contradicts what his industrial plan stipulates: that 90 percent must be implemented in European territory.”
In unofficial documents prepared by military experts and seen by this newspaper, at least six critical points and “structural risks” in which the Horjet project is located were identified. They are basically: A “Over-reliance on one foreign supplier; The use of procedures without competition, which generates political and media criticism; Budgetary pressures, with an imbalance between the political and financial cycle of the programme; technological delays, with integration or certification issues common in aviation; Reduced participation of national industry or SMEs and possible changes in strategic priority as a result of the formation of a new government or a new geopolitical context.
In short, with the aircraft project, the development of which has not yet begun, and of which only two of the four ordered models have been delivered, “There was an attempt to disguise it as a Spanish development program, which is a real Turkish development program.”.
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