Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has sent its
T129 ATAK advanced attack and reconnaissance helicopter to Pakistan, at the request of the Pakistan Army Aviation Command (PAA).
The T129 was in Pakistan for two weeks in late May and flew in some of the country’s hottest and highest places as part of ongoing negotiations.
The PAA has been fighting terrorism in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) for the past ten years with the AH-1S Cobra, although the Vietnam-era helicopters were never designed to fight at the high altitudes of 16,000ft and above which they currently are.
The T129 ATAK helicopter was loaded into a cargo aircraft at TAI’s Ankara facility, where it took six technicians and a forklift truck just an hour to load the T129 into the Antonov.
After landing at the Multan International Airport, the T129 ATAK was transferred to the adjacent Army Aviation Base where it was made operational.
Following two hours of cockpit familiarisation training by TAI Flight School instructors and test pilots, the Pakistan Army Aviation test pilot was ready to fly.
During testing, the T129 ATAK flew to the highest and hottest areas in the Himalayas’s Pano Aquil, Chor region, where the temperatures were around 52˚c. It then flew to Quetta army air base, in the Balochistan desert, where the Pakistani army pilot conducted typical mission profiles.
A TAI source told
Shephard: 'Several missions saw the helicopter loaded to 5,000 kg, its maximum take-off weight and flying at 14,000 ft in temperatures of around 23˚c. It flew both day and at night.
'Thanks to the identical dual-cockpit approach, a game changer we have introduced at TAI, Pakistani pilots had the opportunity to perform pilot and gunner roles, from both cockpits. It provided us at TAI with a really good opportunity to measure the T129’s performance, maintainability and sustainability in some very hot conditions.'
During ten days of flights, the T129 conducted over seven flights in three different locations, Multan, Pano Aquil and Quetta, totaling over 15 flight hours. The operations were carried out with two pilots, four technicians and one quality inspector.
To date, TAI has delivered 12 T129s to the Turkish Army – nine T129A (EDH) and three serial production T129Bs.
Next year, it is hoping to deliver 15-17 more to the end user. The Pakistan government almost ordered 15 T129s in 2008, but the plans were dropped in the wake of the massive floods that year.
https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/rotorhub/t129-hot-and-high-pakistan/
