Turks are on the ATAK...

The TAI T129 ATAK (AgustaWestland AW729) is an attack/tactical reconnaissance helicopter under development for the Turkish Land Forces Command (TLFC Army). It is a modernised and enhanced derivative of the existing, combat-proven AgustaWestland A129 Mangusta, and production machines will be 100% Turkish built, with TAI as the prime contractor and AgustaWestland and ASELSAN acting as TAI’s subcontractors.

The aircraft that flew on August 17 joined the second Italian-built prototype (the first having been lost in an accident in March 2010).

Four further aircraft are scheduled to join the flight test programme over the next few months, leading to customer deliveries from the third quarter of 2013.

Delivery of the first serial production helicopter is scheduled for June 2013, with the next seven aircraft following every two months, and with subsequent helicopters being delivered on a monthly schedule out to the end of 2016.

TAI and AgustaWestland already enjoy a successful long-term partnership, with TAI responsible for manufacturing fuselages for the new generation AW139 medium twin helicopter.

Under this programme, which began in 2004, a total of 250 AW139 helicopter fuselages are being manufactured by TAI facilities between 2005-2017. The first fuselage was shipped to AgustaWestland on December 21 2006.

The ATAK programme represents the beginning of a new phase of this relationship, which both companies describe as evolving “into a strategic partnership”. This will further enhance the technological capability of the Turkish defence industry.

Under the terms of the ATAK programme, AgustaWestland will establish a joint-venture company with TAI, and will transfer the A129 programme and related technology to TAI, including the production line and all software source codes. TAI will, thereby, become the sole source for the production of the whole fuselage, including final assembly and flight operations.

TAI and AgustaWestland will share ownership of the intellectual property rights for the new T129 configuration, and TAI will have full re-export rights (except to Italy and the UK) and will be responsible for marketing the new attack helicopter to the world.

Turkey was one of the earliest operators of dedicated attack helicopters in the wider Middle East, purchasing ten AH-1W SuperCobras in the early 1990s, and then augmenting these with 32 ex-US Army AH-1P Cobras. The survivors (about six AH-1W and 20-23 AH-1P) now equip the Taarruz Helikopter Taburu at Ankara/Güvercinlik and Diyarbakir.

Turkey has been hoping to expand and modernise its attack helicopter force since the mid-1990s, drawing up a requirement for some 91 new attack helicopters, which it wanted to co-produce rather than simply purchase off the shelf. Protracted negotiations with Bell Helicopter aimed at licence production of the new AH-1Z Super Cobra were eventually abandoned in 2004, in the face of irreconcilable differences over price and licencing terms, including exportability and software codes.

A new competition was launched in February 2005 and the RFP was re-drafted in May 2005 following objections from some manufacturers. The changes were not sufficient to prevent the US suppliers Bell Helicopter and Boeing from dropping out.

In July 2006, the Turkish Defence Ministry eliminated the Franco-German EADS Eurocopter Tiger and the Russo-Israeli Kamov/IAI Ka-50-2 Erdogan from the competition, shortlisting the Denel AH-2A Rooivalk and the AgustaWestland A129 International.

The basic A129 Mangusta did not meet Turkish requirements, being found wanting during hot and high trials in Eastern Anatolia. AgustaWestland, therefore, offered the A129 International variant, which had an uprated transmission and was powered by a pair of 1,200shp Allison-Garrett LHTEC T800 turboshaft engines in place of the original aircraft’s Piaggio-built 1,035shp Rolls-Royce Gem 2 Mark 1004D turboshafts.

The International also featured a five-bladed main rotor and a nose-mounted Alenia Difensa TM-197B 20mm cannon, a license-built version of the General Electric M197 three-barrelled Gatling gun, in an OtoBreda turret.

By this time the Turkish requirement was for 30 helicopters with 20 options, with through-life integrated logistics support.

On March 30 2007 Turkey announced that it was negotiating with AgustaWestland for the purchase of 51 Agusta A129 Internationals with another 41 on option under the same terms. The contract was signed on September 7 that year and became effective on June 22 2008, with the ATAK helicopter programme formally starting on July 2 2008.

By this time, the configuration of the aircraft had been finalised and it had been designated as the T129 (later gaining the new internal AgustaWestland type number AW729).

AgustaWestland opened a new dedicated T129 facility at its Cascina Costa headquarters in 2009, manned by an integrated team of 70 Turkish and AgustaWestland personnel, with an assembly area for the T129 prototypes. The facility was designed to bring together the integrated team into a single location to enable all of the industry partners to work together in the most efficient manner. The facility served as the headquarters for early test and development work, before the focus of activity shifted to Turkey.

The first T129 prototype, known as P1, was converted from an existing Italian aircraft and made its maiden flight in its new guise on September 28 2009, at Vergiate. This aircraft was lost on March 19 2010. A second prototype (actually P3) joined the flight test programme in March 2010.

Aircraft P6, the first to be built by ATAK programme prime contractor TAI, made its maiden flight at TAI’s Akinci-Ankara facility on August 17 2011, in the hands of test pilots Adnan Meral and Gokhan Korkmazturk. It flew with a nose-mounted Aselsan AselFLIR-300T targeting system and a mock-up of a 20mm cannon. P4, P5, P2 and P7 will join the flight test programme during the next few months. P7 will be fully representative of the full ATAK configuration and is an extra aircraft, added to replace the lost P1.

In its production form, the T129 promises to be an extremely formidable and capable machine, with a number of significant improvements over the original A129.

The Turkish T129 is powered by a pair of state-of-the-art 1,361shp Rolls-Royce/Honeywell LHTEC CTS800-4A/N turboshaft engines. These will be manufactured under licence by TUSAS Engine Industries (TEI). They will give the T129 a speed of up to 145kts (269kmh) and will confer excellent performance in ‘hot and high’ conditions, allowing the aircraft to carry a heavy load of weapons, while giving an endurance of up to three hours and a maximum range of 303nm (561kmh). The new engines, coupled with the new five-bladed rotor system will confer a high degree of agility.

The T129 promises to be the most advanced variant of the Mangusta, with a digital cockpit architecture and a new, highly integrated flight, mission and fire control system being jointly developed and integrated by TAI and its sub-contractors, including new indigenous mission computers, avionics and weapons systems.

The integrated mission equipment package includes a new generation ASELSAN AselFLIR 300T advanced targeting and sight system (consisting of FLIR, CCTV, and laser designator), an integrated helmet mounted sight and display, secure communications and data link, and precision navigation equipment. These give the T129 genuine all-weather day and night capabilities.

The T129 is well armed, too, with its three-barrelled 20mm chin turret, and four fuselage-mounted pylons, qualified to carry a wide variety of stores, symmetrically or asymmetrically, including podded 12.7mm machine guns, unguided 70mm Hydra rocket pods and a range of anti-tank guided missiles including TOW, Spike-ER and the AGM-114 Hellfire, as well as Stinger or Mistral air-to-air missiles.

The T129 has good survivability characteristics, with a low visual, aural, thermal and radar signature, as well as integrated aircraft survivability equipment and a high degree of ‘designed in’ ballistic tolerance and crashworthiness.

The T129’s wheeled landing gear and built-in supportability features make it well suited to operating in remote areas with minimal logistical support.

Of the 51 T129 attack helicopters on firm order, one will be retained by the Turkish Ministry of Defense as a test-bed for systems development, upgrades, etc. The remaining 50 will be delivered in two distinct ‘blocks’. The first 30 will be to Turkey unique configuration 1 (TUC-1) standards, with an indigenous mission computer, indigenous EW and countermeasures systems, the indigenous Aselsan AselFLIR-300 targeting system, a Thales helmet-mounted cueing system, and a foreign-built ATGM – either Hellfire II or Spike ER.

The remainder will be to TUC-2 standards, and these will introduce the indigenous Aselsan AVCI helmet-mounted cueing system, as well as an indigenous ATGM in the shape of the new Roketsan UMTAS/LRAT anti-tank missile, up to 12 of which will be carried by the T129. The new Roketsan Cirit laser-guided 70mm (2.75in) rocket will also be carried by the TUC-2 standard T129.

Some reports also suggest that the second batch of T129s will have a mast-mounted millimetre-wave radar, under development since July 16 2007, by a consortium formed by the Turkish State Research Organization (TÜBİTAK), METEKSAN Savunma Sanayii A.Ş and Bilkent University.

The first T129s will not be delivered until 2013 and in order to meet short-term requirements, the Turkish army has ordered an additional nine T129s (increasing the number ordered to 60), which will be built in Italy by AgustaWestland for delivery in 2012. These aircraft will be delivered with Italian avionics and weapons systems and Rolls-Royce Gem engines and will lack any ATGM capability (though they will eventually be upgraded to TUC-2 standards).

On June 30 2010, Turkey’s defence minister, Vecdi Gönül, raised the possibility of leasing nine further A129s, in addition to the earlier decision to buy nine Italian AgustaWestland-built A129 attack helicopters. This plan was subsequently abandoned.

Though the original A129 and T800-engined A129 International were not successful in export competitions prior to the 2007 Turkish order, with just 60 (plus prototypes) being built for the Italian Esercito, TAI has high hopes of T129 exports. Under the agreement with AgustaWestland, TAI has full marketing and intellectual property rights for the T129 platform, with no restrictions imposed on the export or transfer of the platform to third countries. Jordan, Malaysia Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the UAE have all been reported as having ‘shown interest’ in the new type, which is arguably the Arab world’s first locally built and purpose-designed attack helicopter.