Turkey will not receive its first Eurofighter Typhoon until 2030. Its first Typhoon pilots, however, are already in Lincolnshire.
On 27 September, the Royal Air Force announced that two Turkish Air Force pilots have started conversion training with 29 Squadron at RAF Coningsby, the Typhoon Operational Conversion Unit. They are the first of the Türk Hava Kuvvetleri to learn the jet, and they will stay in Britain long enough to teach the next ones.
Kurzinfo
- WHO: Two Turkish Air Force pilots
- Wo: 29 Squadron, the Typhoon Operational Conversion Unit, RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire
- Angekündigt: 27 September 2026 by the Royal Air Force
- Course: Up to nine months of conversion training, then three months of instructor training
- Nachher: Both will serve as instructors at Coningsby until Turkey's jets arrive
- Die Abmachung: 20 Eurofighter Typhoons with weapons, support and training, valued at more than £8 billion
- Erste Lieferung: 2030
From Classroom to First Sortie
The course starts on the ground. According to Group Captain Batu, programme director of the Türkiye Programme Management Office, the two pilots will spend the first weeks learning the Typhoon's systems and the procedures used in UK military airspace before they fly.
After that comes the flying. The conversion course can last up to nine months, followed by three months of instructor training. Once qualified, the two Turks will not go home. They will stay at Coningsby as instructors with 29 Squadron until the first Turkish aircraft arrive in 2030, building the experience that the Turkish Air Force will need to stand up its own Typhoon force.
Why Turkey Is Buying Typhoons
For years, Turkey's fighter plans ran through the F-35 and the F-16. Its removal from the F-35 programme in 2019, after it bought Russia's S-400 air defence system, left a gap that the home-grown KAAN fighter will take years to fill. The Typhoon is the bridge.
According to the RAF, the contract covers 20 Typhoons along with weapons, support and training, and is worth more than £8 billion. The UK Ministry of Defence says it will sustain around 20,000 jobs at sites in Edinburgh, Warton, Samlesbury and Bristol. It follows the UK-Türkiye Security and Defence Partnership signed at the NATO summit in Ankara in July 2026.
Coningsby has done this before. The RAF already runs 12 Squadron as a joint UK-Qatar Typhoon squadron. For the RAF, training a foreign customer's first pilots is part of selling the aircraft.
Two Typhoons take off and land as a pair at RAF Coningsby, where the Turkish pilots are now training. Video: Ted Coningsby.
A Head Start of More Than Three Years
More than three years may sound like a long time to train two pilots. It is not. A new fighter fleet needs instructors, maintainers and planners who know the aircraft before it lands, and the only place to get that experience is inside an air force that already flies it.
By the time the first Turkish Typhoon touches down, these two pilots will have spent years flying and teaching on it at Coningsby. That is the whole point.
Sources: Royal Air Force, UK Ministry of Defence, AeroTime, aeroTELEGRAPH, Defence Industry Europe, FlightGlobal
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