Posted on 11/09/2010 8:26:32 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Turkey signs for more T129 attack helicopters
By Craig Hoyle
Turkey has increased its order for the T129 attack helicopter to 60 aircraft, with prime contractor Turkish Aerospace Industries to deliver nine newly ordered examples by mid-2012.
Worth €150 million ($208 million), the contract extension - signed with AW129 producer AgustaWestland - will equip the Turkish army with a batch of TAI-assembled aircraft one year sooner than previously planned.
© AgustaWestland
AgustaWestland chief executive Giuseppe Orsi says the new deal "confirms how the partnership between AgustaWestland and its partners is able to effectively respond to customer's urgent requirements". Ankara had previously been offered an interim capability using AW129s sourced from the Italian army, as its fleet of Bell AH-1 Cobras has suffered several losses in the last several years.
Despite having suffered a setback when the programme's first prototype crashed in March 2010, AgustaWestland says the T129 remains on schedule, with a critical design review to take place soon. Further prototypes are now being assembled in Italy and Turkey and will enter flight test next January, it adds.
Turkey's T129 will feature locally produced systems, such as avionics equipment developed by Aselsan and Roketsan's UMTAS air-to-surface missile.
Turkey should be thrown out of NATO, and never allowed into the EU. They are a Trojan Horse.
Great. Build in a detonator that can be activated if necessary, by a US or Israeli drone with the code.
What could go wrong!??
Building up their forces for the on going Jihad in Europe.
Why are they buying more attack choppers?
TO escalate ethnic cleansing of Kurds in east Turkey.
And they are still members of NATO.
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