Pakistan Extends Delivery Deadline for Turkish T129 ATAK Helicopters

Pakistan has extended the deadline for Turkey to deliver the 30 T129 ATAK helicopters by another six months.

In an official statement, President of Turkey’s Defence Industry, Ismail Demir, said that Turkey has successfully obtained an extension of another six months from Pakistan for rolling out the first batch of T129 ATAK helicopters.

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In 2018, Pakistan had awarded Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), a subsidiary of the state-owned Defence Industry, a $1.5 billion contract for the acquisition of 30 T129 ATAK helicopters.

However, the recent US sanctions against Turkey have slowed down the deal as the latter now requires a US export license before proceeding with the delivery of the helicopters.

Earlier this year in January, Pakistan had extended the deadline for TAI to deliver 30 T129 attack helicopters by 12 months.

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In December last year, the US had imposed sanctions on Turkey for procuring the Russian S-400 missile system instead of the American-made Raytheon’s Patriot missile system.

In 2017, Turkey had purchased the Russian S-400 long-range surface-to-air missile system through sanctioned Russian export entity Rosoboronexport. Turkey received the first associated delivery in July 2019 and tested the system in October last year.