Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on the 11th (local time) that the country plans to export 48 units of the fifth-generation fighter jet Kaan to Indonesia.
Indonesia has participated in the development of the KF-21 (Korean Fighter) with Korea, but conflicts have arisen over contributions and technology transfer issues, making the statement noteworthy.
President Erdoğan noted on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that Turkey had entered into "a historic export contract in the history of Turkey" with Indonesia. He added that the Kaan fighter jet would be produced in Turkey and that Indonesia's capabilities would also be utilized in production. He expressed gratitude to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and extended congratulations to the Turkish defense contractor Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS).
Turkish media outlet Sabah reported that the transaction was finalized during the defense exhibition 'IDEX 2025,' which is taking place in Jakarta, Indonesia from the 11th to the 14th of this month, and that the production of the Kaan fighter jet is set to begin in 2028.
Last month, Mehmet Demiroğlu, CEO of TUSAS, stated that the Kaan fighter jet could be unveiled to the public in 2027. The Kaan fighter jet, previously referred to as the TF-X, is Turkey's indigenously developed fifth-generation fighter jet, which began development in 2010 to replace the F-16 fighter jet acquired from the United States. The Korean supersonic fighter jet KF-21 Boramae is classified as a 4.5-generation fighter.
TUSAS released footage last February of the Kaan fighter jet, equipped with the F-110 twin-engine from General Electric (GE) in the U.S., successfully completing its first test flight. Turkey is also accelerating its own engine development. Indonesia, where the majority of the population is Muslim, maintains a close relationship with the Islamist-oriented Erdoğan government of Turkey.
Indonesia is experiencing discord with Korea during the KF-21 development cooperation process. Consequently, the Korean government has proposed to revise the joint development agreement with the Indonesian government by reducing Indonesia's initial contribution from 1.6 trillion won to 600 billion won, alongside a decrease in the scale of technology transfer.
However, the Indonesian government did not actively engage in revision discussions after its domestic technicians were caught trying to smuggle out an unauthorized portable storage device (USB) containing KF-21 data, leading to an investigation by Korea. Recently, the Korean prosecution has cleared five Indonesian technicians of charges or granted deferred prosecution.