ANKARA: Turkey and Pakistan have agreed on the sale of a batch of 30Turkish-made T129 ATAK multirole combat helicopters, reports foreign mediaquoting Turkish officials.
A government election manifesto revealed by Turkish President Recep TayyipErdogan said Turkey and Pakistan “just recently” agreed on the contract,which is the largest-ever Turkish-Pakistani defence contract. The twocountries have been negotiating a T129 deal since 2014. This is the firstexport contract for the helicopter.
Turkish Aerospace Industries, or TAI, maker of the T129 under license fromthe Italian-British AgustaWestland, has so far delivered 35 T129s to theTurkish Army and the Gendarmerie force.
Before the deal, the T129 went through various tests in Pakistan. Mostrecently, the T129 was showcased at a March 23 military parade forPakistani National Day. “We expect further [T-129] contracts to follow theorder from Pakistan,” a Turkish defence procurement official said. “We arein talks with a number of countries.” The official declined to name any ofthe potential T129 buyers. One TAI official said, however, that potentialbuyers could include Jordan, Libya and Azerbaijan.
The Turkish government has not disclosed a price for the T129 deal withPakistan, but aerospace industry sources estimate the contract to be worthabout $1.5 billion, almost equivalent of Turkey’s annual defence exports.Turkey’s defence exports rose slightly from $1.677 billion in 2016 to$1.739 billion in 2017. Turkish officials aim to attain $10 billion indefence and aerospace exports by 2021.
TAI started to deliver the T129 to the Turkish Army in April 2014. Underthe full program, a batch of 59 helicopter gunships will be delivered.There is an option for a follow-on order of 32 more choppers. TAI officialssay the T129 features 97 percent sovereign production.
The Turkish Army deploys T129 gunships at its domestic southeasternmilitary bases to support anti-terror operations against Kurdish rebelsfighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, northern Iraq and northwestSyria. The T129 choppers are Turkey’s first locally made platforms underlicense. The T129 features a tandem seat, twin-engine andNATO-interoperability for attack, armed reconnaissance, andprecision-strike and deep-strike mission capabilities for day and night andin all weather conditions.
The T129 incorporates asymmetric weapon-loading capability and enables theuse of all weapons according to mission requirements. For close-combatsupport missions, a 20mm gun turret with a capacity of 500 rounds as wellas 70mm rockets with a capacity of 76 rockets have been integrated.
For multipurpose missions, 16 CIRIT 70mm laser-guided air-to-groundmissiles, 8 UMTAS long-range anti-tank missiles and 8 Stinger air-to-airmissiles are integrated, in addition to advanced electronic warfare andelectro-optical systems. The T129 cockpit provides situational awarenessthrough visibility arcs and integrated mission and communication systems.The Aselflir-300T targeting sight system increases image quality and rangeperformance with real-time image processing and multiple target trackingwith a thermal camera, laser rangefinder, designator and spot tracker. TheAVCI helmet-mounted display system provides integrated display capabilitiesto crew for extensive missions.
The T129 deal is the largest-ever Turkish-Pakistani defence contract.Earlier, in 2013, Pakistan’s Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works penneda deal to build a replenishment tanker designed by Turkish technology andsystems engineering company Savunma Teknolojileri Muhendislik ve Ticaret.
In another deal, TAI upgraded a batch of 41 F-16 fighter jets for thePakistani Air Force. That program involved avionics and structuralmodernization of the aircraft. TAI also is in talks with Pakistan for thesale of its Hurkus basic trainer aircraft.