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NPR News: 01-26-2024 10PM EST
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday formally informed Congress of its intention to proceed with the $23 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, taking a major step toward completing a long-delayed process that tested ties with Ankara.
The State Department sent the notification to advance the sale of 40 Lockheed Martin F-16s and nearly 80 modernization kits to Turkey, a day after Ankara fully completed ratification of the NATO membership of Sweden, a move that became directly linked to the jet sales.
The Biden administration simultaneously advanced the sale of 20 Lockheed F-35 stealth fighter jets to fellow NATO ally Greece, an $8.6 billion deal that Washington advanced as it tries to strike a balance between two alliance members with a history of tense relations.
Turkey first made the request for the jets in October 2021, but Ankara’s delay in approving the ratification of Sweden’s NATO bid had been a major obstacle to winning congressional approval for the sale.
Following 20 months of delay, the Turkish parliament earlier this week ratified Sweden’s NATO bid, and subsequently Biden wrote a letter to key congressional committee leaders, urging them to approve the F-16 sale “without delay.”
The State Department’s Friday night notification came only a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave his final sign-off on Sweden’s ratification, and hours after the instrument of accession was delivered to Washington.
“My approval of Turkey’s request to purchase F-16 aircrafts has been contingent on Turkish approval of Sweden’s NATO membership. But make no mistake: This was not a decision I came to lightly,” said Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one of four key committees that needs to approve arms transfers.
Turkey needs to urgently improve its human rights record, cooperate better on holding Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine and help lower the temperature in the Middle East, Cardin said.
“My concerns have been strongly and consistently conveyed to the Biden administration as part of our ongoing engagement, and I am encouraged by the productive direction of their discussions with Turkish officials to address these issues,” he said.
Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees review every major foreign arms sale. They regularly ask questions or raise concerns over human rights or diplomatic issues that can delay or stop such deals.
Following the transfer of the formal notification by the State Department, the Congress has 15 days to object to the sale, after which it is considered final.
U.S. officials do not expect the Congress to block either sale, despite criticism of Turkey by some members.
los angeles — Data gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover have confirmed the existence of ancient lake sediments deposited by water that once filled a giant basin on Mars called Jezero Crater, according to a study published Friday.
The findings from ground-penetrating radar observations conducted by the robotic rover substantiate previous orbital imagery and other data leading scientists to theorize that portions of Mars were once covered in water and may have harbored microbial life.
The research, led by teams from the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Oslo, was published in the journal Science Advances.
It was based on subsurface scans taken by the car-sized, six-wheeled rover as it made its way across the Martian surface from the crater floor onto an adjacent expanse of braided, sedimentary-like features resembling, from orbit, the river deltas found on Earth.
Soundings from the rover’s RIMFAX radar instrument allow scientists to peer underground to get a cross-sectional view of rock layers 65 feet (20 meters) deep, “almost like looking at a road cut,” said UCLA planetary scientist David Paige, the first author of the paper.
Those layers provide unmistakable evidence that soil sediments carried by water were deposited at Jezero Crater and its delta from a river that fed it, just as they are in lakes on Earth. The findings reinforced what previous studies have long suggested — that cold, arid, lifeless Mars was once warm, wet and perhaps habitable.
Scientists look forward to an up-close examination of Jezero’s sediments — thought to have formed some 3 billion years ago — in samples collected by Perseverance for future transport to Earth.
In the meantime, the latest study is welcome validation that scientists undertook their geobiological Mars endeavor at the right place on the planet after all.
Remote analysis of early core samples drilled by Perseverance at four sites close to where it landed in February 2021 surprised researchers by revealing rock that was volcanic in nature, rather than sedimentary as had been expected.
The two studies are not contradictory. Even the volcanic rocks bore signs of alteration through exposure to water, and scientists who published those findings in August 2022 reasoned then that sedimentary deposits may have eroded away.
Indeed, the RIMFAX radar readings reported on Friday found signs of erosion before and after the formation of sedimentary layers identified at the crater’s western edge, evidence of a complex geological history there, Paige said.
“There were volcanic rocks that we landed on,” Paige said. “The real news here is that now we’ve driven onto the delta and now we’re seeing evidence of these lake sediments, which is one of the main reasons we came to this location. So that’s a happy story in that respect.”
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday formally informed Congress of its intention to proceed with the $23 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, taking a major step toward completing a long-delayed process that tested ties with Ankara.
The State Department sent the notification to advance the sale of 40 Lockheed Martin F-16s and nearly 80 modernization kits to Turkey, a day after Ankara fully completed ratification of the NATO membership of Sweden, a move that became directly linked to the jet sales.
The Biden administration simultaneously advanced the sale of 20 Lockheed F-35 stealth fighter jets to fellow NATO ally Greece, an $8.6 billion deal that Washington advanced as it tries to strike a balance between two alliance members with a history of tense relations.
Turkey first made the request for the jets in October 2021, but Ankara’s delay in approving the ratification of Sweden’s NATO bid had been a major obstacle to winning congressional approval for the sale.
Following 20 months of delay, the Turkish parliament earlier this week ratified Sweden’s NATO bid, and subsequently Biden wrote a letter to key congressional committee leaders, urging them to approve the F-16 sale “without delay.”
The State Department’s Friday night notification came only a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave his final sign-off on Sweden’s ratification, and hours after the instrument of accession was delivered to Washington.
“My approval of Turkey’s request to purchase F-16 aircrafts has been contingent on Turkish approval of Sweden’s NATO membership. But make no mistake: This was not a decision I came to lightly,” said Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one of four key committees that needs to approve arms transfers.
Turkey needs to urgently improve its human rights record, cooperate better on holding Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine and help lower the temperature in the Middle East, Cardin said.
“My concerns have been strongly and consistently conveyed to the Biden administration as part of our ongoing engagement, and I am encouraged by the productive direction of their discussions with Turkish officials to address these issues,” he said.
Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees review every major foreign arms sale. They regularly ask questions or raise concerns over human rights or diplomatic issues that can delay or stop such deals.
Following the transfer of the formal notification by the State Department, the Congress has 15 days to object to the sale, after which it is considered final.
U.S. officials do not expect the Congress to block either sale, despite criticism of Turkey by some members.
los angeles — Data gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover have confirmed the existence of ancient lake sediments deposited by water that once filled a giant basin on Mars called Jezero Crater, according to a study published Friday.
The findings from ground-penetrating radar observations conducted by the robotic rover substantiate previous orbital imagery and other data leading scientists to theorize that portions of Mars were once covered in water and may have harbored microbial life.
The research, led by teams from the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Oslo, was published in the journal Science Advances.
It was based on subsurface scans taken by the car-sized, six-wheeled rover as it made its way across the Martian surface from the crater floor onto an adjacent expanse of braided, sedimentary-like features resembling, from orbit, the river deltas found on Earth.
Soundings from the rover’s RIMFAX radar instrument allow scientists to peer underground to get a cross-sectional view of rock layers 65 feet (20 meters) deep, “almost like looking at a road cut,” said UCLA planetary scientist David Paige, the first author of the paper.
Those layers provide unmistakable evidence that soil sediments carried by water were deposited at Jezero Crater and its delta from a river that fed it, just as they are in lakes on Earth. The findings reinforced what previous studies have long suggested — that cold, arid, lifeless Mars was once warm, wet and perhaps habitable.
Scientists look forward to an up-close examination of Jezero’s sediments — thought to have formed some 3 billion years ago — in samples collected by Perseverance for future transport to Earth.
In the meantime, the latest study is welcome validation that scientists undertook their geobiological Mars endeavor at the right place on the planet after all.
Remote analysis of early core samples drilled by Perseverance at four sites close to where it landed in February 2021 surprised researchers by revealing rock that was volcanic in nature, rather than sedimentary as had been expected.
The two studies are not contradictory. Even the volcanic rocks bore signs of alteration through exposure to water, and scientists who published those findings in August 2022 reasoned then that sedimentary deposits may have eroded away.
Indeed, the RIMFAX radar readings reported on Friday found signs of erosion before and after the formation of sedimentary layers identified at the crater’s western edge, evidence of a complex geological history there, Paige said.
“There were volcanic rocks that we landed on,” Paige said. “The real news here is that now we’ve driven onto the delta and now we’re seeing evidence of these lake sediments, which is one of the main reasons we came to this location. So that’s a happy story in that respect.”