10 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com
NEWS
// JUNE 2018 #Continental Europe
Three ATAKs delivered to
Turkish Jandarma
Above: The fi rst Jandarma T129, J-1453 ‘Fatih’, one of three formally accepted into service on
April 19. TA I
A FORMAL ceremony
was held on April 19 to
mark the acceptance
into service of the first
three T129 ATAKs for the
Turkish Jandarma Havacilik
Komutanliği (Gendarmerie
Aviation Command).
The attack helicopterscomprised J -1453 Fatih,
J -1299 Osmangazi and
J -1071 Alparslan.
The helicopters are the
first of 18 on order for the
Jandarma under a contract
signed last year. They will
help to boost the service’s
close air support capability,while also being used
for intelligence gathering
and reconnaissance. The
first of them, J -1453, had
already been handed
over to the Jandarma
by Turkish Aerospace
Industries ( TAI) on February- Dave Allport
Montenegrin Bell 412
handover
THE VAZDUHOPLOVSTVO
Vojske Crne Gore (VVCG,
Army of Montenegro
Aviation) received the first
of three Bell 412EPs on
April 13. The second-
hand 412EP (c/n 36307,
ex N356TD) was built
in 2002 and had been
used by the New York
Police Department as a
surveillance helicopter
from July 2003 as N 2411X
and, later, as N23FH. It
was sold back to Bell
around 2015 and on April7 this year was transferred
from Fort Worth, Texas
to Václav Havel Airport,
Prague in a Boeing 747.
Five days later it was flown
to Golubovci, Montenegro
where it was met in the air
by three VVCG Gazelles,
previously the only aircraft
in service with the air
arm. Two new-build Bell
412EPI helicopters will
arrive before the end of
the year. All three will be
used for pilot training.
Aleksandar RadićMontenegrin Ministry of DefenceSerbia lines
up Mi-35Ms,
Mi-17s and
An-26s
BELGRADE HAS begun
efforts to acquire four Mi-
combat helicopters, four
Mi-17 transport helicopters
and two An-26 turboprop
transports from Russia.
Talks regarding the
acquisition of the eight
helicopters have begun,
according to Defence
Minister Aleksandar Vulin,
who met with his Russian
counterpart Sergey
Shoygu in Moscow on
April 3. Previous plans
announced by Chief of
the General Staff of the
Vojska Srbije (VS, Serbian
Armed Forces), General
Ljubiša Diković, were for six
Mi-17s. The VS acquired
two non-operational
Mi-24V Hind-Es from the
Interior Ministry in 2006
but the gunships were
never made airworthy
and remained grounded
at Batajnica air base.
On March 19, Aleksandar
Vulin announced that
Russia will provide two
An-26s as part of the
modernisation of the
Ratno vazduhoplovstvo
i protivvazduhoplovna
odbrana (RV i PVO,
Serbian Air Force and Air
Defence). Igor BozinovskiBelgium’s Dark Falcon unveiled
Benoît Denet
THE BELGIAN Air
Component unveiled its new
F-16AM solo display aircraft,
FA-101 Dark Falcon, at
Florennes air base on April- The colour scheme
was designed by Johan
Wolfs and Nicolas Deboeck
and applied by the 2nd
Tactical Wing paint shop.
It reflects the nickname
of display pilot SeniorCaptain Stefan Darte –
callsign ‘ Vado r’, after Darth
Vader from the Star Wars
movies. Senior Captain
Darte is assigned to 1
‘Scottish Thistle’ Squadronof the 2nd Tactical Wing
and will serve as the F-
solo display pilot for the
next two seasons, with the
possibility to extend this
for a third and final year.US approves Spanish CH-47F purchase
THE US State Department
has approved a possible
sale of CH-47Fs to
Spain. The 17 CH-47Fs
are estimated to cost
$1.3bn. The Defense
Security Cooperation
Agency (DSCA) notified
Congress of the possible
sale on April 4.
Spain announced plans
to upgrade its 17 CH-47Ds
to CH-47F standard in2015, when it was stated
that the work would begin
in 2017, but delays in
approval have prevented
this from starting.
The DSCA notification
makes no mention of an
upgrade, suggesting the
17 CH-47Fs would be new-
build. Also included in
the package are 21 AN/
AAR-57A(V)8 Common
Missile Warning Systems(CMWS) and 42 embedded
Global Positioning
System/inertial navigation
systems (GPS/INS).
Spain’s Fuerzas
Aeromóviles del Ejército
de Tierra (FAMET, Spanish
Army Airmobile Forces)
originally took delivery of
ten CH-47C models from
December 1972, adding
nine commercial BV
Chinooks to the fleet fromJanuary 1982. Following
approval at the end of
1989, all nine BV414s
and the nine surviving
CH-47Cs were upgraded
to CH-47Ds. One CH-47D
has since been lost, leaving
a fleet of 17. They are
operated by the Batallón de
Helicópteros de Transporte
V (BHELTRA V, Transport
Helicopter Battalion 5)
at Colmenar Viejo.