Newly, the diplomatic sources of Washington DC have officially announced that the US stopped Turkey from supplying 30 locally-made attack helicopters to Pakistan, and this news is also confirmed by Turkey’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. Now the question arises here why this announcement is being made by the US in the meantime?
Since in July 2018, Turkey and Pakistan inked a memorandum of cost $1.5 billion, and according to this deal, Pakistan is going to buy a Turkish-based gunship helicopter (T-129) to replace its fleet of AH−1F Cobra gunships that were acquired in the 1980s. However, the chairperson of the Turkish defense industry (SSB) state that Islamabad and Ankara had prolonged the deal to an upcoming year for smooth supply of these helicopter to Islamabad, meanwhile; the company must first secure U.S. export licenses before delivery can take place, the engine which is using in this chopper is made of America (ATAKT-129) is a twin-engine, tandem seat, multi-role, attack in every weather condition based on Agusta A-129 Mangusta platform, each engine can produce an output power of 1,014 kilowatts. The T800-4A is an export version of the CTS800 engine. The Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company (LHTEC), is a joint venture between the American firm Honeywell and the British company Rolls-Royce. Therefore, the US has all the basic rights to provide export clearance for the Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company (LHTEC) and the Pentagon stops providing export clearance to a Turkish company for these engines.
Thus, stopping turkey to sell choppers to Pakistan is happening not all of a sudden, there is some recent past history behind this verdict. The US-Turkey ties starting right after Ankara’s decision to buy an S-400 defense missile system from Russia in 2018 and worth was $5 billion, Turkey’s this decision is more significant because Turkey is a member of NATO, also being as a close defense partner of America Turkey should not to buy Russian’s carrying weapons, therefore US imposing Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act United States federal legislation (CAATSA) on Turkey, and US role out Turkey’s participation from an F-35 fighter jet, and refuse to give F-35 air fighter jet to Turkey as well. The US’s imposing sanction on Turkey is sustainable until Turkey role out from the deal with Russia over the S-400 defense missile system deal. As a result, Turkey is directly and Pakistan is indirectly infected by this Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions act United States (CAATSA). There are, of course, some Indian and Israeli lobbying undercover against the two allies to cancel the deal and force Islamabad to look for another option. Meanwhile, Islamabad already has an eye on another option if the deal between Turkey-Pakistan falls apart, and this was China’s CAIC Z-10 gunship helicopter, it was sent to Pakistan before T-129 was chosen, and this China’s CAIZ Z-10 failed to impress Islamabad and returned to China. However, if the deal between Turkey-Pakistan falls apart, then Pakistan defiantly goes for the Chinese version, for the only reason that Pakistan has no other option.
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