Combat aircraft

A

LTHOUGH A CLOSE ally of

the West, Turkey’s ties with

NATO, Europe and the US

have come under increasing

strain in recent years due to

various disagreements —

including towards policy in the Middle

East. As a result, Turkey has opted to

depart from its traditional Western-

oriented attitude in favor of a more

expansive approach that includes courting

new partners such as China.

As a result, Turkey’s fast growing

industrial base is struggling to  nd its

eagerly desired independence, especially

in the defense sector, despite some

important gains. Broadly speaking, the

strategic Turkish perspective is to create

new international partnerships for defense

and aviation projects in order to help

eliminate external dependency.

Clear evidence of this is manifested in

the involvement of Turkish Aerospace

Industries (TAI) with the T129 ATAK

program, a local derivative of the Italian

A129 International light combat helicopter

from Leonardo Helicopters. Turkey

acquired full marketing and intellectual

property rights for the T129, and with

Italian interest having  agged it can now

o er the T129 for export (excluding Italy

and the UK).

In 2011, Turkey chose Sikorsky as its

partner to lead the production of a next-

generation utility helicopter, dubbed

TUHP (Turkish Utility Helicopter Program).

Sikorsky’s T-70

— the Turkish

version of its

S-70i Black Hawk

International — was selected, defeating

the AW149 in the process. In March 2014,

Sikorsky announced that a contract had

been signed with Turkey’s government

that licenses TAI to manufacture an

initial batch of 109 T-70s for the Turkish

Armed Forces, plus a batch of 109 S-70is

for Sikorsky. The contract is worth $3.5

billion and covers a 30-year period,

involving the potential production of up

to 600 helicopters for national and export

customers. TAI is the prime contractor for

production and assembly in Turkey. The

process includes components supplied

by Sikorsky and other US and Turkish

 rms. In addition, Aselsan is developing a

new cockpit avionics system that will be

featured in the T-70.

The local market

Turkey’s Kara Havacılık Komutanlığı (Army

Aviation Command, AAC) is the aviation

Turkey’s role in the Caucasus and Middle East — one of the

hottest regions of the world — is regarded as being of crucial

importance, both for its contribution to stability and for its rapid

transformation as an industrial partner.

REPORT Mauro Finati and Paolo Rollino

80 March 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

80-87 Turkish Army C.indd 80 19/01/2018 17:01