WASHINGTON: Pakistan has given another extension to a helicopter deal with Turkey, giving Ankara six more months to deliver the helicopters, a US defence tabloid reported.
In July 2018, Pakistan signed a $1.5 billion deal with Turkey for buying 30 Turkish-made T129 Atak helicopters. The delivery date, however, has been pushed back due to the Pentagon’s refusal to issue export licenses for engines and other parts made in the US.
“We have obtained a six-month extension from Pakistan,” Turkey’s top procurement official, Ismail Demir, told a US newspaper.
In January 2020, Pakistan gave the first, one-year, extension to the manufacturers, the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), for delivering the helicopters, but with the sale in jeopardy, the Turkish government tasked Tusas Engine Industries, TAI’s sister company, with developing an indigenous engine for the T129.
The US objection was rooted in Washington’s opposition to Ankara purchasing the Russian-made S-400 Triumf air defence system. A senior procurement official in Turkey said that the extension did not imply the deal would work out.
“This is not a technological or commercial issue,” he said. “It is purely political, and as long as the reasons for the US blockade remain in effect … what looks like a Turkish-Pakistani deal will be a victim of a Turkish-US dispute.”
Pakistan chose Turkey’s T192 attack helicopters to replace its fleet of AH?1F Cobra gunships that were acquired in the 1980s.
But the Turkish Aerospace Industries, which makes the helicopters, must first secure US export licenses before delivery can take place.
The 5-ton T129 is a twin-engine multirole attack helicopter produced under license from the Italian-British company Agusta Westland and based on the A129 Mangusta. It’s powered by two LHTEC T800-4A turbo-shaft engines. LHTEC, the maker of the engine, is a joint venture between the American firm Honeywell and the British company Rolls-Royce.
Read more: US blocks delivery of Turkish gunships to Pakistan
