Boeing delivered, on schedule, the second Peace Eagle Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft to the Turkish Armed Forces, further improving the country’s self-defense capabilities.

The AEW&C aircraft arrived at Konya Air Base, the fleet’s main operating base (photo).

The first Peace Eagle AEW&C aircraft was delivered on January 31, and a third will be delivered later this year. Boeing is scheduled to deliver the fourth aircraft for the program in 2015.

In addition to the four aircraft, the Peace Eagle program includes ground support segments for mission crew training, mission support and system maintenance. Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), Turkish Airlines, HAVELSAN and MiKES are key suppliers on the program.

Earlier, TAI delivered the first “T129 ATAK” Advanced Attack and Tactical Reconnaissance Helicopter to Turkish Armed Forces on 22nd of April 2014.

The Program started in 2007 for development and production of 91 helicopters, as a Joint Collaboration of TAI and AgustaWestland also known as “ATAK Team”.

Within the scope of program, the first T129 ATAK Helicopter was delivered to Turkish Armed Forces and as of today over 4000 flight hours were conducted during the flight & firing tests, qualification & acceptance flights and training activities.

T129 ATAK is a new generation, tandem two-seat, twin engine helicopter specifically designed for attack and reconnaissance purposes. T129 ATAK, developed from the combat proven AgustaWestland A129CBT, incorporates totally new system philosophy with new engines (LHTEC CTS 800-4A), new avionics, visionics and weapons, modified airframe, uprated drive train and new tail rotor.

T129 ATAK has been optimized to meet and exceed the “high and hot” performance requirements for harsh geographical and environmental conditions while providing the following key characteristics:

• Day & night all environment capability; effective, precise weapon systems that provide combat superiority while low visual, aural, radar and IR signatures, high level of crashworthiness and ballistic tolerance provide high battlefield survivability.
• Excellent situational awareness through good visibility arcs and fully integrated mission and communication systems.
• Eased crew workloads through superior performance, agility and platform stability and handling qualities.
• Reduced Preparation Time augmented by off-board Mission Planning System and reduced take-off time.
• Low operating cost through effective design and on-condition maintenance.