The Turkish Defense Ministry has decided to purchase combat
helicopters and military-transport airplanes, Armenia Today reports,
citing Flightglobal.
The Turkish Air Forces currently have 28 light combat helicopters -
Bell AH-1 Cobra of P, S and W versions. Most of them are used in the
south-eastern part of the country against Kurdish militants. Turkey
will buy 10 Agusta Westland 129 Mangusta helicopters from Italy. They
will be modernized. The purchase will not influence Turkey's plans of
to produce its own Agusta Westland T129 helicopters. Turkey plans to
produce 50 helicopters, 41 of them for the Turkish military.
Turkey also intends to purchase Lockheed Martin C-130E Hercules
military transport airplanes from Saudi Arabia. The Erciyes program
being realized in Turkey involves modernizing 13 S-130 B and E
versions airplanes. The airplanes purchased in Saudi Arabia will be
modernized.
The reason for purchasing the old transport aircraft is the delay of
Airbus A400M shipment to Turkey. At the same time the Turkish Air
Forces started getting rid of the Dassault-Breguet C160, that were to
be replaced by 10 A400Ms.
