Turkish T129 ATAK multirole Attack Helicopter: Another Success of Turkish Aviation

Turkish Armed forces are seeking to increase its number of homegrown most advanced T-129 Atak multirole attack helicopters to 91 by the next year.

⌚ Timestamps:
00:00 Delivery of T-129 Attack Helicopters to Philippine Air Force
01:28 Design and Development of Turkish T-129 ATAK
04:00 Specifications of Turkish T-129 Attack Helicopter
05:52 Export of T-129 ATAK
07:10 Turkish Aviation Industry Success

As of today, Turkey is operating around 69 T-129 gunships. Like the Turkish drones, the T-129 tactical reconnaissance and attack helicopter is another success story of advanced Turkish weapon systems and equipment. Turkey has already received heavy orders for multirole attack helicopters from various including Philippines, Brazil, Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, Turkey delivered two T-129 gunships to Philippines Air Force in its first ever foreign delivery. Total six T-129s were ordered by the Philippines as country’s first dedicated attack helicopter through a government-to-government contract worth 270 million in July last year.

The 5-ton T129 is a twin-engine multirole attack helicopter produced by the Turkish Aerospace Industries under license from the Italian-British company Agusta Westland. In order to meet the need of Turkish Armed forces for a tactical reconnaissance and multirole attack helicopter, the Atak program was initiated in 2007. The Italian company Agusta Westland was engaged for negotiations to jointly develop the attack helicopter based on Agusta Westland A129. Subsequently, a 1.2 billion dollar contract was signed between the Turkish Aerospace Industries and Agusta Westland in June 2008. As per agreement, TAI developed the avionics, weapon systems, helmet-mounted system and mission computer for the chopper.

Powered by 02 1014 kilowatt CT800-4A turboshaft engines, the tandem seat all-weather gunship helicopter is designed for advanced attack and reconnaissance missions. It can fly both day and night missions and can be operated in high-altitude and rough geography environment. Operated by a crew of 2 personnel, T129 has length of 14.54 meter and height of 3.4 meter. It has maximum speed of 281 km, range of 537 km, endurance of 3 hours and service ceiling of 15000 feet. The gunship is installed with M197 three barrel rotary cannon with capacity of 500 rounds, can carry 76 unguided rockets, 8 LUMTAS Anti-tank guided missiles, 16 cirit guided missiles and 8 air to air stinger missiles.

Various countries have shown interest to acquire T-129 attack helicopters from Turkey. In 2018, Pakistan chose Turkish attack helicopter to replace its aging fleet of AH-1F Cobra gunships. A contract worth 1.5 billion was signed for 30 T-129 attack helicopters. However, the delivery has not been made so far due to long awaited export license by the United States for use of CTS800 engines.

From the last few years, Turkish Aviation sector has remained very successful to produce and export advance weapons systems to the various countries.

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