As reported by the web resource "Middle East Eye" in the material Ragip Soylu "US Turkey approves military helicopter sale to Philippines" ("the United States has approved the sale of the Turkish military helicopters to the Philippines"), several Turkish officials, including President for communications of the Turkish state aircraft manufacturing company Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) Serdar Demira, confirmed 17 may 2021, which the U.S. State Department has issued the necessary documents and licenses to permit delivery to the Philippines produced six combat helicopters TAI T129 ATTACK, equip an American turboshaft engines LHTEC T800-4A.
The first TAI T129 ATAK combat helicopter delivered to the Turkish Gendarmerie (tail number J-1512), 2018 (c) SSB
Earlier, the US government blocked the issuance of licenses to Turkey for the re-export of LHTEC T800-4A engines, thereby preventing the sale of Turkish T129 helicopters to third countries, in particular to Pakistan and the Philippines. The T800 series engines are manufactured in the United States by LHTEC (Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company), a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Honeywell, and were originally developed at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s for the non-serial American reconnaissance and strike combat helicopter Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche (the program of which was finally closed in 2004). Of the production helicopters, the LHTEC T800 engines are used on the AgustaWestland (Leonardo) Super Lynx 300 and AW159 Wildcat, but now their main consumer is the Turkish TAI T129 ATTACK combat helicopter (created on the basis of the Italian AgustaWestland (Leonardo) A129).
In December 2018, the Minister of National Defense of the Philippines, Delfin Lorenzana, announced the decision to purchase eight Turkish TAI T129 ATAK combat helicopters for the Philippine Air Force. At the same time, a little earlier, the first foreign customer of the T129 helicopter was Pakistan, which signed a contract with Turkey in the summer of 2018 worth about $ 1.5 billion for the supply of 30 machines. However, both of these contracts faced the impossibility of implementation due to the refusal of the United States to issue export licenses to Turkey to these countries for the American LHTEC T800-4A engines installed on the T129. This was one of the forms of "punishment" of Turkey by the United States for the purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems in Russia.
Now, under the new administration in Washington, the American side apparently began to apply a more flexible policy towards Turkey, and as a result, the US State Department issued a permit for the supply of engines for six T129 helicopters for the Philippines. However, allowing much more engines to be delivered to Pakistan (at least 60 engines for 30 T129 helicopters) would require Congressional authorization, since U.S. law requires the government to notify Congress of commercially licensed defense products if they involve large defense sales abroad of $ 25 million or more. But in this case, such a resolution remains unlikely due to the strong anti-Turkish sentiment in the US Congress.
The publication reports that in March 2021, the Turkish side received from Pakistan another six-month extension of the entry into force of the contract for the supply of T129, in order to continue lobbying for obtaining an American export license for engines for them. However, Turkish officials believe that it is unlikely to get permission from the US Congress due to bilateral political tensions and the hostility of the Congress to Turkish President R. Erdogan.
