The T70 Utility Helicopter Program, which was launched for the utility helicopter requirement of the Turkish Armed Forces and the fire fighting helicopter need of the General Directorate of Forestry, continues its progress.

Presidency of Defence Industries (Savunma Sanayii Başkanlığı / SSB), which is the military acquirement corporation of Turkey, shared an information from its official social media accounts about the testing activities of the platform. In the statement, “The ground tests of the T-70 Helicopter produced within the scope of the Utility Helicopter Program, we continue test activities successfully. A total of 109 T-70 Helicopters will be produced under TUSAŞ, ASELSAN, TEI, Alp Aviation, Sikorsky subcontracting.”

The T70 process was launched in 2005 for the acquiring of 52 helicopters. Many international participants took part during the tender. The number of procurement in the tender was increased to 109 in line with the increasing need. The S-70 won the competition, which has approximately 1.5 billion Dollars possible export volume, which proved its worth many times and was widely used by the Turkish Armed Forces. The platforms to be manufactured under license were named as T70. Helicopters contain a very high amount of domestic components, especially ASELSAN-produced avionics, Alp Aviation-produced power transmission and drive components and engines to be manufactured under license at TEI. The final assembly of the platforms is carried out in the facilities of TUSAŞ, which is also the manufacturer of structural components.

The first of the helicopters manufactured in TAI was rolled-out from the hangar on November 26, 2019.