Media covered the news on the fact that balance-weight was placed on T129 attack helicopters to keep the balance and that delayed the participation of these helicopters to the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces. What is Balancing? Before answering questions such as "is there a major problem?", it is important to understand the developments under the ATAK Project.
When an agreement was concluded with AgustaWestland for the helicopters for the use of the Land Forces Command, only AW129 int was in arena. This helicopter was a configuration of AW129 developed for export purposes, which has been used by the Italian Army. Turkey requested many radical changes to be made on AW129 int when making a selection. These changes were not limited to the changes to be made in the engine and the transmission. Some of the new avionic, weapon and weapon control systems and the mission computer developed by our national industry were planned to be incorporated into the helicopter. In parallel with these changes, a change in weight calculations was mandatory as well. The engine and transmission would be used in each helicopter, but whenever available, national systems would be integrated into the helicopters. Changes and additions, which would be done to make the system better organized and immediately understand which system is used in which helicopter, were named Phase 1 and Phase 2. Early Delivery Helicopters (EDH) with the lowest configuration were brought before the schedule in order to prevent delays in the programme. This way, three steps were developed on the way to final configuration in Phase 2 from lowest to the highest; EDH, Phase 1 and Phase 2.
