The long-stalled sale of 40 F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a deal that has been approved by Congress remains still unimplemented. Since the agreement was finalized in January 2024, Ankara has deliberately stalled its execution, citing concerns that the associated upgrade of its existing fleet of 79 F-16s is not economically advantageous. This posture has caused growing frustration among senior officials at the Pentagon and the State Department, who have made it clear - both publicly and privately - that such behavior is unacceptable for two main reasons: 1. because it constitutes a breach of an agreement that only came together after months of high-stakes diplomacy over Sweden's NATO accession, a process that demanded the expenditure of significant US political capital on the global stage. 2. because the implementation of the F-16 deal is seen as a prerequisite for any future progress toward the F-35s sale, should the legal obstacles...