Footage of Turkish T-129 attack helicopters unleashing their 20mm cannons on a training target have found their way onto social media. These attack helicopters have been in service in Turkey’s military since 2014, and have seen action on at least two occasions: once within Turkey’s borders in counter-terror operations, and again earlier this year in Afrin, where one T-129 was shot down by Kurdish YPG fighters.
There are a number of nations that have expressed interest in purchasing the T-129, including Poland, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia — making these sorts of training videos more than a display of the Turkish military’s firepower, but also an important advertising tool aimed at foreign prospects. Military aviation around the world has increasingly become an export-focused industry, as nations hope to offset the high development and production costs of creating new platforms by distributing that cost among other purchasers. Russia’s now all-but-dead Su-57, as an example, effectively died the moment India backed out as an investor. Russia alone simply couldn’t swing the cost of doing advanced fighter business.
As far as advertisements go, this one is pretty cool:
Scary attack 😎 pic.twitter.com/wWpNYqDJtu
— Rotarywing (@Rotarywings1) May 4, 2018
In another video captured at the same training event, you can even see the T-129s firing their 20mm cannons from inside the cockpit of one of the helicopters.
Scary attack 😎 pic.twitter.com/wWpNYqDJtu
— Rotarywing (@Rotarywings1) May 4, 2018
Feature images courtesy of Twitter