First batch of T129 helicopters to arrive in Philippines in December

The first batch of the six Turkish-made T129 «ATAK» attack helicopters will arrive in the Philippines in December, Philippine Air Force (PAF) commander Lt. Gen. Allen Paredes said Tuesday night.

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As reported by the Philippine Public News Agency, the six T129 attack helicopters were procured for a total contract price of U$S 269,388,862 (about P12.9 billion) from Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) through a government-to-government type agreement under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

The T129 is a twin-engine, tandem-seat, multi-role, all-weather attack helicopter based on the Agusta A129 Mangusta platform and further developed in Turkey, which is designed for advanced attack and reconnaissance missions in hot, high environments and adverse geographical conditions, both day and night.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana signed the contract for the procurement of the Turkish attack helicopters in July last year.

In May this year, the U.S. approved the export license needed for Turkey to sell the helicopters to the Philippines. The U.S. approval for the export of these helicopters was necessary as the helicopters are powered by U.S. engines.

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It is the LHTEC T800-4A, which is an export variant of the CTS800 engine, jointly developed by Honeywell and Rolls-Royce. It has a length of 0.85 m, a diameter of 0.56 m, weighs about 154 kg and develops a power output of 1,014 kW. The T129 carries 2 of these.

The PAF is looking to acquire specialized but affordable attack helicopters to reinforce its fleet of armed helicopters, such as the MG-520 and AW-109E, which are used for counter-terrorism missions and support to ground units.

Morocco would be another potential customer for the T129 ATAK, which would have been negotiating the acquisition since 2018, but the same would have been slowed down by the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on Turkey under CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) law, following the purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft systems. Under the new Biden administration, these sanctions are being progressively eased, which is expected to lead to Morocco’s purchase of the T129 sooner rather than later.