Turkey and Italian firms set to co-produce T129 combat helicopters

AugustaWestland won Turkey's attack helicopter tender for Tactical Reconnaissance and Attack Helicopter (ATAK) program in March 2007, which South Africa's Denel was the other bidder.

TAI will be the local prime contractor, Turkey's Aselsan and Italian company Agusta will be the subcontractors of the project to produce a total of 90 attack and tactical reconnaissance helicopters that would be produced by means of national software and hardware systems.

Under the contract, Turkey will be a party to the intellectual property rights of the new configuration of helicopters. Turkey will also be the only resource for final assembly, flight procedures and entire airframe production.

Turkey started its attack helicopter acquisition process in the mid 90s, but it lasted longer due to technical problems.

The planned duration of the ATAK Program is 114 months beginning from the affectivity of the contract, with delivery of the first seven helicopters to customer to be realized once every two months, and the remaining helicopters to be delivered once a month.

The contract signed by prime contractor TAI and Agusta Aerospace took effect in 2007 and a ceremony will be held in the Turkish capital Ankara on Tuesday.