Current status
T925 is Turkish Aerospace’s heavy utility helicopter programme, developed as a larger rotorcraft step beyond the T625 GÖKBEY and drawing on experience from Türkiye’s indigenous helicopter programmes.
Turkish Aerospace’s current programme page states that the design phase has been completed and development is progressing toward a prototype. The company currently targets the first flight for the end of 2026. This is a future programme target as of 22 August 2026 and must not be written as a completed milestone.
The first operational emphasis is firefighting. Turkish Aerospace states that T925 is being developed as a general-purpose helicopter for firefighting operations and is planned to begin service with the General Directorate of Forestry from 2028, after prototype work. The current page lists a 4-ton water-carrying capacity, approximately three hours of endurance and a published MTOW of about 12,000 kg.
The platform is nevertheless intended for a wider role set. Turkish Aerospace lists transport, cargo, offshore, search and rescue, firefighting, air ambulance and VIP missions, together with maritime-oriented features such as automatic blade and tail folding.
A significant programme issue is propulsion. The current Turkish Aerospace Turkish-language technical page lists two Motor Sich TV3-117VMA-SBM1V turboshaft engines. Separately, SSB’s gas-turbine-engine roadmap identifies development or localisation of a 2,500–3,500 shp turboshaft for 10-ton utility and heavy-attack helicopters as a longer-term objective. Defence Agenda should therefore track propulsion as a distinct programme dependency rather than infer that a nationally developed helicopter necessarily has an indigenous engine in its current prototype configuration.
Why it matters
T925 expands Türkiye’s helicopter ambitions from the six-ton-class GÖKBEY into a substantially heavier class suitable for cargo, firefighting, maritime and military utility missions.
The programme can create common technology with T929 ATAK II in areas including rotor systems, transmission, dynamic components, avionics, flight controls, survivability-related subsystems and potentially future propulsion.
For the civil/public-service side, the firefighting mission creates a domestic fleet requirement that can support production maturity before or alongside wider military roles.
The propulsion question is strategically important. A successful airframe programme can still face schedule, export and sustainment constraints if the powerplant remains externally sourced. T925 should therefore be monitored as both an aircraft programme and an engine/localisation programme.