The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that after a sequence of delays, Temel Kotil, common supervisor of TAI of the Turkish Aerospace Inc. (TAI) confirmed that the primary batch of six T129B helicopters the federal government procured from Turkey will lastly arrive within the Philippines. The primary batch had been imagined to be delivered in December, beforehand mentioned the subsequent two items can be delivered in 2023, and the final two in 2024. As soon as commissioned, the helicopters will probably be assigned to the fifteenth Strike Wing of the Philippine Air Drive (PAF). On 22 Could 2021, PAF reported that it might ship pilots and upkeep crew to Ankara to be educated by TAI personnel.
When the Philippine Air Drive (PAF) re-evaluated its capabilities and efficiency after the Battle of Marawi in 2017 towards ISIS-inspired terrorists, it discovered that the MD-520MG and AW-109E Energy helicopters didn’t have adequate firepower. As a substitute of buying extra mild armed helicopters, the PAF is now all for purpose-built assault helicopters, even when acquired in smaller portions. In the long run, the PAF’s Technical Working Group (TWG) chosen the TAI T129 ATAK resulting from its lower cost than its American opponents. TAI was in a position to provide six T129s for the authorized finances, in comparison with simply 5 AH-1Z Vipers from Bell, or 4 Boeing AH-64E Apaches from Boeing.
Commercial
On 18 December 2018, the Philippines and Turkey signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Protection Trade Cooperation that may enable Authorities-to-Authorities (G2G) acquisition and manufacturing, in addition to technical cooperation on protection trade improvement. In July 2020, the DND signed a contract for the acquisition of six T129B helicopters from TAI for P13.7 billion, by means of a government-to-government cope with the Turkish Ministry of Protection. On 17 Could 2021, after years of uncertainty, it was reported by a number of Turkish officers that america has authorized export licences to Turkey to promote T129 army helicopters to the Philippines.
The TAI/AgustaWestland T129 ATAK is a twin-engine, tandem seat, multi-role, all-weather assault helicopter primarily based on the Agusta A129 Mangusta platform. The T129 was developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) with accomplice AgustaWestland. The helicopter is designed for superior assault and reconnaissance missions in sizzling and excessive environments and tough geography in each day and night time circumstances. The ATAK programme was begun to satisfy the Turkish Armed Forces’ necessities for an assault and tactical reconnaissance helicopter. The assault helicopter has a unit price of roughly US$50 million.
