Turkey Still Awaits Qatar’s Eurofighter Contract for 24 Jets: A Bridge Fleet Until KAAN
Turkey’s bid to acquire 24 secondhand Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Qatar and Oman remains unresolved, with Ankara still waiting for Doha to send a sales contract and a draft pilot-training programme. Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence confirmed the gap in a statement issued Thursday, October 22, 2026.
According to the ministry, Turkish and Qatari delegations spent August and September working through technical and logistical details, including the scope of aircraft and munitions to be transferred and the training required for pilots and maintenance crews. No timeline was given for when the paperwork might arrive.
A separate track from the UK order
The Qatar-Oman negotiation runs on a different track from Turkey’s agreement with Britain. Ankara signed for 20 brand-new Eurofighter Typhoons from the UK in October 2025, a deal Turkey’s defence ministry valued at £5.4 billion covering jets, munitions and equipment, against London’s own £8 billion figure. Deliveries of those aircraft are not due to begin until 2030, and the contract carries an option for 20 more.
The secondhand jets from Qatar and Oman answer a different need: filling the Turkish Air Force’s fleet gap sooner. Turkey’s indigenous KAAN fighter is not expected to enter service until 2028, while the roughly 270-strong F-16 C/D fleet it will partly replace is due for retirement in the early 2030s. Ankara is separately buying 40 F-16 Vipers from Washington and has said it wants back into the F-35 programme, from which it was removed in 2019 over its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defence system. Against that backdrop, used Typhoons function as a bridge rather than a long-term fleet solution.
Numbers in flux, consortium approval required
Qatar holds 36 Eurofighters and Oman 12; reporting on exactly how many of each would move to Turkey has varied, but the figure most consistently cited by officials on both sides is 12 jets from each country, for a total of 24. Any such transfer needs sign-off from all four Eurofighter partner nations — the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy. Germany lifted its own veto on Eurofighter sales to Turkey roughly two years ago, a step that unlocked both the UK contract and the Gulf negotiations.
The talks are not new. In October 2025, President Erdogan said discussions with Qatar and Oman were “progressing positively.” By February 2026, reporting suggested 32 of a targeted 44 Eurofighters had effectively been locked in, with a final block of 12 still under negotiation. The October 2026 ministry statement confirms that final block — now framed as 24 jets split between Qatar and Oman — still lacks a signed contract.
Qatar’s own needs could shape the outcome
Qatar’s own air-defence requirements may be weighing on the pace of talks. Iranian strikes on Qatar during the US-Israel war with Iran raised questions about how willing Doha would be to part with its own Typhoon fleet. Al-Monitor reported Turkish officials describing the deal as still on track despite the regional turmoil, while Reuters-sourced coverage has stressed that little concrete progress has been made on the 24 additional aircraft. That gap between official framing and visible movement is itself part of the story.
The ministry’s statement clarifies where the process stands without setting an end date. Qatar sending its draft contract and training programme to Ankara is the next concrete step that would move the 24-jet block out of negotiation and into execution.
Sources
- Turkish Minute, “Turkey awaits sales contract from Qatar for secondhand Eurofighter jets: ministry,” October 22, 2026, turkishminute.com — used to confirm the ministry’s statement and the August-September negotiation timeline.
- Al-Monitor, “Turkey says Qatar Eurofighter jet deal still on track despite Iran war,” October 2026, al-monitor.com — used for Qatar’s regional security context and the assessment of how the talks are progressing.
- Infodefensa, “Turquía está en espera de un contrato para comprar otros 24 cazas Eurofighter a Catar y Omán,” October 23, 2026, infodefensa.com — used to confirm Qatar’s and Oman’s existing Eurofighter inventories and the consortium approval requirement.
