Agusta A129 variants

yasotay said:
Another benefit of this helicopter is that it is much smaller than the AH-64, Tigre or Mi-24/28. It now has a decent power to weight ratio I am told.
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As demonstrated by the following drawing:

(P.S. The silhouette of the Mil-28 Havoc looks more reminiscent to that of the Denel Rooivalk.....)

Regards
Pioneer
 

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I suspect that Turkish Aerospace will be giving the "old crowd" a run for their money in the coming years, if they can keep their economy in some semblance of order. Lower price point, less political baggage associated with the purchase, decent reliability. I think they will compete with Korea and to a lesser extent China (lots of baggage with that one though). Mostly in the southern hemisphere. The "old crowd" has a pretty tight hold above the equator.
 
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Combat-Master said:
Turkey will navalise a batch of 8 T-129 helicopters to operate with Turkey's LHD. It'll be interesting to see what kind of modifications we'll see.
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I'm not expecting much more than some serious anticorrosion measures applied to airframe and engines. Though integrating Penguin or Maverick missiles would be an option (or their Turkish equivalents).
 
TomcatViP said:
New photos:

AW249_new-flight_4.jpg


theaviationist.com

New Photos Of The New AW249 Attack Helicopter Emerge As Test Campaign Progresses

A month after the first flight, the testing is progressing to expand the AW249's flight envelope. A month after its first flight, the new Leonardo AW249
theaviationist.com theaviationist.com
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That looks like they're trying to include radar stealth shaping, but there's way too much stuff scabbed onto the surface for that to be effective...
 
The Italians opted for the low velocity M197 under chin. I wonder if any other calibers were entertained over the 12.7mm baseline chin turret. I could see room for revival of .60-caliber (15.2mm x 114mm) considering gatling guns explored the caliber with the T45 program. 20mm in any velocity has to be a real threat to the helicopter's sustainability and lifespan.
 
MadRat said:
The Italians opted for the low velocity M197 under chin. I wonder if any other calibers were entertained over the 12.7mm baseline chin turret. I could see room for revival of .60-caliber (15.2mm x 114mm) considering gatling guns explored the caliber with the T45 program. 20mm in any velocity has to be a real threat to the helicopter's sustainability and lifespan.
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In the case of the .60cal gatlings, the realization was that shell weight was more important than velocity. It's why they enlarged the bore to 20mm and accepted the reduced velocity.

20x102mm is also very common, any old US aircraft from the F-104 and newer have it, which means that anyone who bought those aircraft have it in inventory.
 
From Army Aviation 1979/12
 

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