On April 6, 2022, the Philippine Villamor Air Base in Manila hosted the official acceptance ceremony by the Philippine Air Force of the first two T129B ATTACK attack helicopters manufactured by the Turkish state aircraft company Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), out of six ordered. The ceremony was attended by the Minister of National Defense of the Philippines Delphine Lorenzana. This is the first realized delivery of Turkish T129 helicopters abroad.
The ceremony of the official acceptance of the Philippine Air Force of the first two T129B ATTACK combat helicopters produced by the Turkish state aircraft company Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) out of six ordered. Vilamor (Manila), 06.04.2022 (c) Ministry of National Defense of the Philippines
Recall that in December 2018, Minister Delphine Lorenzana announced that the Technical Working Group (TWG) Phillippin Air Force recommended the purchase of 16 Sikosrky S-70i International Black Hawk multipurpose helicopters and eight Turkish TAI T129 ATAK combat helicopters. In May 2020, Lorenzana announced pre-contract negotiations with Turkey regarding the purchase of six T129 helicopters, and in July 2020, an intergovernmental contract was signed between Turkey and the Philippines for the supply of six T129B helicopters in the amount of 13.72724824 billion Philippine pesos ($269 million), including the supply of weapons, equipment, spare parts, technical support and training of personnel composition.
The contract signed back in 2019 for the purchase of 16 S-70i helicopters for the Philippine Air Force from the Polish Sikorsky production line from the Sikorsky PZL-Mielec plant has been successfully implemented, and now 32 more S-70i helicopters have been ordered. However, Turkey's sale of T129 helicopters to the Philippines and Pakistan faced obstacles due to the initial refusal of the United States to issue export licenses to Turkey to these countries for American LHTEC T800-4A engines installed on the T129 (manufactured in the United States by LHTEC (Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company), a joint venture of Rolls-Royce and Honeywell corporations). This has become one of the forms of "punishment" of Turkey by the United States for the acquisition of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems in Russia.
It was only in May 2021 that it became known that the US State Department had issued the necessary documents and licenses to authorize the supply of six Turkish T129B ATTACK combat helicopters equipped with LHTEC T800-4A engines to the Philippines, which unblocked the contract with the Philippines, which thus became the first foreign recipient of this type of helicopters.
The delivery of the first two T129B helicopters built for the Philippines was made to Manila by two Airbus A400M military transport aircraft of the Turkish Air Force on March 9, 2022, and now both helicopters have entered service with the Philippine Air Force. According to the initial terms of the contract, the first two T129V helicopters were to be delivered to the Philippine side in September 2021, the second pair in February 2022, and the third pair in 2023, but in the end, due to these political problems, the terms of the contract were shifted by six months. In the Philippine Air Force, these helicopters will be part of the 15th Strike Wing.
The contract signed back in 2018 by Turkey for the supply of 30 T129 helicopters to Pakistan was never implemented, since the permission to supply a much larger number of LHTEC T800-4A engines to Pakistan (at least 60 engines for 30 T129 helicopters) required the sanction of the US Congress, since American legislation suggests that the government must notify Congress of commercially licensed defense products, if they are associated with large defense sales abroad in the amount of $ 25 million or more. In this case, the US government did not even submit a request to Congress due to strong anti-Turkish sentiments in the US Congress.
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The ceremony of the official acceptance of the Philippine Air Force of the first two T129B ATTACK combat helicopters produced by the Turkish state aircraft company Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) out of six ordered. Vilamor (Manila), 06.04.2022 (c) Ministry of National Defense of the Philippines and @SOSUS
